Australia v New Zealand: Boxing Day Test, day two – live!

97th over: Australia 272-4 (Smith 82, Head 30) Time for Wagner, and you know what that means. His first short one at Head wasn’t on target but the next couple were, aimed right in that difficult spot just below the shoulder. Head’s electing to play by default, jumping in line to defend with soft hands a couple of times. It’s that or the Matt Wade approach of wearing them on the body.

96th over: Australia 272-4 (Smith 82, Head 30) Not much for Southee so far this morning, Head getting well on top of an impotent short ball, pulling it away for three. He’s better to Smith, squaring him up with a good’un.

95th over: Australia 269-4 (Smith 82, Head 27) A better over from Boult, finding the outside portion of Smith’s bat early in the over before cutting him in half from around the wicket to finish with one that did plenty. Ian Smith on TV is lamenting Santner’s lack of penetration yesterday, only called upon for seven overs of spin.

94th over: Australia 267-4 (Smith 81, Head 27) So close to some luck for New Zealand! Smith’s straight drive clips Southee’s fingers in his follow through, deflecting back onto Head’s stumps. They go upstairs to check it out but he’s back into his ground in the nick of time. On strike later in the over, the left-hander is unlucky not to add a boundary to the score, the athletic Southee again in the act in his follow through, stopping a well-struck drive with one hand.

93rd over: Australia 266-4 (Smith 80, Head 27) “You can never judge a pitch until both sides have batted on it,” insists Warne when Boult’s bumper leaps at Head two balls after a length delivery bounces before reaching the ‘keeper. Might be that kind of day. Defending off the back foot later in the over, the South Australia times it so well he gets two past the bowler – his first runs of the day. That’s the 50 partnership between the pair, brought up in 115 balls together.

92nd over: Australia 264-4 (Smith 80, Head 25) Whoa, four byes to start Southee’s morning from the Great Southern Stand End, a delivery that drifted down leg and kept swinging after passing Smith, beyond the diving left glove of Watling. When using his bat, Smith picks out the fielder at cover a couple of times. There’s a catcher now in at very straight and close midwicket, but he isn’t required here. The TV calls reminds us that Southee has never dismissed Smith in a Test.

91st over: Australia 260-4 (Smith 80, Head 25) Easy peasy, Smith into the 80s from the first ball of the day, steering a long half-volley through cover for three. It requires an athletic dive from Williamson on the rope, pulling up awkwardly after pulling the ball back in. By contrast, Head cops a beauty to begin, a bumper that follows his swaying helmet, the left-hander just getting his head out of the way. The visiting supporters love it. As the Test progresses, the percentage of New Zealand fans is likely to grow given they will surely be in for the full five days. The vice captain is making solid contact by the end of the over. Good re-start.

“Happy belated Christmas.” And to you, Ruth Purdue. “I for one can’t wait to see Cummins and Pattinson on this.”

Yes – that’s a tasty proposition later today. To think he’s had to wait eight years for a second home Test Match. They love him in Melbourne, make no mistake.

The players are on the field! Boult has the ball in his hand for the first over of this second day, ready to race in from the MCC End. Smith is on strike. He’s counting the fielders, preparing to resume his innings on 77. PLAY!

“Morning Adam.” Hello, Andrew James. “Is it perhaps finally time for us armchair experts to take over as groundsman of the MCG? The recent Shield match clearly went too far, and now it appears to have swung back the other way. And will today see the famous Black Cap Bad Luck™ finally give them a few wickets in return for yesterday’s abject run? Unlikely when Smith is still at the crease, you’d think.”

Close watchers, I felt, were willing to give the MCG curator a bit of breathing space after the shambolic Shield round earlier this month. Sure, there was nothing good about the cancellation of that game – no excusing it. But you could see what he was trying to do, finding a way to prepare a lively Test track for the first time at the MCG since, gosh, 2010? That’s harder than it looks with the old drop-in technology he has inherited for the time being, which I don’t pretend to understand.

Secondary point: isn’t it great that we are the only country in the cricket world (as far as I’m ware) that calls their chief groundman a ‘curator’? Nothing better/sillier than the annual press conference we do with Damien Hough, the main man at Adelaide Oval, before the Test there. We’re a country of amatuer horticulturalists.

Kevin Roberts has just held a press conference. He was pumping the volume up on the day one success with over 80,000 in the MCG. That made it the eighth highest attendance ever at a day of Test cricket in Australia. Long story short: don’t expect New Zealand to wait 32 years for their next Boxing Day appearance.

In case you missed it, an eventful day at Centurion. The first of the South Africa v England series, four Tests coming up between them over the next four weeks.