15th over: Australia 48-1 (Warner 30, Labuschagne 3) Warner has decided that de Grandhomme is his main concern today, and is very watchful through this over. High elbow, defending under the eyes, as Colin works away accurately at off stump. The only run is an extra for a slight overstep.
14th over: Australia 47-1 (Warner 30, Labuschagne 3) The new run machine arrives at the crease, Marnus Labuschagne. Off the mark quickly, trading singles with Warner. A productive over for the Australians, as Warner slips the ball through square leg for three, then Marnus takes on Wagner’s first short ball to pull two runs. He played that shot very productively against Pakistan, and likes the Perth bounce too at first taste.
Wicket! Burns lbw de Grandhomme 9
13th over: Australia 40-1 (Warner 26) Burns goes, last ball of the over! Warner takes the first five and then turns over the strike with a nudge. Perhaps de Grandhomme’s lack of pace foxed Burns with only one ball to face. That was a replica of the Wagner ball, swinging in to the pads, but this time the batsman can’t get a touch. Warner at the non-striker’s end shakes his head when asked about the DRS. You’re plumb, Bob. Umpire Aleem Dar called it spot on.
12th over: Australia 39-0 (Warner 25, Burns 9) Swing for Wagner from a full pitch, this time into the pads of the right-hander from the left-arm line over the wicket. Burns gets off strike after streakily blocking it out to mid-on, who fumbles. Then Warner plays a false shot, a leading edge that bounces in front of short cover! Away swing to the left-hander. Wagner bowls too full to follow, and Warner pushes a run wide of mid-on. More swing to Burns, who mistimes his block of the ball, hard into the pitch. Wagner hasn’t bowled a short ball yet, smart to use the swing while its there. Last ball of the over, he nails Burns on the pad! But a bit of inside edge on the way there, I think. That swung in sharply, perfect length to challenge the pads. Top bowling.
11th over: Australia 37-0 (Warner 24, Burns 8) Colin de Grandhomme the next bowling change, who bowled so well at times during the World Cup in England. His sort of conditions. He’s getting swing immediately, down the leg side first, then making Warner stretch forward on off stump next up, and getting a ricochet to bounce back towards the stumps. Done for lack of pace there. Warner drives, but there’s a short cover in for Colin who dives and saves. A good first over there, a maiden.
10th over: Australia 37-0 (Warner 24, Burns 8) First change in the bowling, with Ferguson given a rest after his exertions. Wagner is New Zealand’s long-spell specialist but even he will be hard pressed to do so in this heat. He’s also a short-ball specialist, but his whole first over to Burns is pitched up. There’s a raucous appeal as the left-armer finishes with a ball angled across Burns that doesn’t angle much, Burns shouldering arms and watching it crash into his pad. The line was still going across him, but a batsman deserves to be fired for that anyway to be honest.
9th over: Australia 37-0 (Warner 24, Burns 8) Warner isn’t watching as Southee steams in, and the batsman looks up just in time to pull back from his stumps. He apologies to Southee for the dead ball, because the withdrawal was very late. New Zealand could rightly have felt aggrieved had that ball cleaned up his stumps and been ruled inadmissible. Southee bowls too wide, trying to swing the ball in but it holds its line, and Warner drives square for four! He reverts to leaving and blocking as Southee winds his line tighter to the stumps.
8th over: Australia 33-0 (Warner 20, Burns 8) Watch out, Warner’s up and running. Pace and width again from Ferguson and the batsman lashes out through the line, lofting it through cover for four. Ferguson goes short but Warner is up on his toes, hopping in the air to ride the bounce down to fine leg for one. Keen for the second, but eventually his habitual cry of “Waiting, waiting!” rings out as the return comes in. Ferguson back over the wicket to the right-hander, and he looks a much better bowler to Burns. Pace and leap past the bat again, and even when he overpitches Burns rather clonks the mistimed drive through cover, though it earns him three. Deep square leg going out for Warner with one ball left, three slips and a gully still in, and Ferguson in the end bowls for the cordon rather than the leg theory field, but Warner blocks the length ball to cover for another darted run. You can’t keep him down.
7th over: Australia 24-0 (Warner 14, Burns 5) Another maiden for Southee, who works over Burns on and around the off stump. Also gives him a workout by throwing the ball back at the striker’s stumps from a defensive shot, which Warner objects to from the non-striker’s end as the arbiter of decorum, and Southee tells him exactly which bus to catch.
6th over: Australia 24-0 (Warner 14, Burns 5) Ferguson is bowling around the wicket to Warner, trying to exploit that line as Stuart Broad did in England. Rather different bowler and conditions here though. Ferguson in short at the hip, and he’s got a square leg now for Warner who stops the fended run after Ferguson previously conceding a couple. Cranking up past 147 kilometres an hour with the last three deliveries. But too full from the final ball, and Warner in his current touch has no problems cover-driving for four.
5th over: Australia 18-0 (Warner 8, Burns 5) Gorgeous from Southee to Burns! Away swing, fractionally, with the ball soaring through with serious bounce from just back of a length, and spooking Burns trying to defend off the back foot. So nearly nicked that one. Southee goes fuller and Burns defends. So hard to get that perfect length. Southee hits a yorker instead and Burns only just gets down on it. This is a good early contest, and Southee bowls a maiden, but how much longer will the life in the ball last?
4th over: Australia 18-0 (Warner 8, Burns 5) Pace and swing! Too much for Ferguson, as he bangs in short and the ball flies high down the leg side for five wides. Then too much for Burns, as Ferguson pitches outside off stump, angling in, beats the edge and the stumps, and then swings late so drastically that it again nearly beats Watling to the leg side. That ball veered absurdly. Ferguson angles in at the pads next, but there’s no movement and Burns clips him nicely for four! Plenty of pace to work with through backward square leg. Last ball of the over, Burns edges short of the slips! Couldn’t help fencing slightly, some movement away from the batsman, and the edge bounces a few inches in front of Latham at second slip and through him for a single. Eventful over, 10 runs from it, and Warner didn’t face a ball.
3rd over: Australia 8-0 (Warner 8, Burns 0) Warner gets busy from the first ball again, deflecting Southee’s straight and full line into the leg side for two. Southee nearly gets reward with that length to follow, with Warner just squeezing a bit of bat down on a full swinging ball, but to close the over Warner pushes away through the covers, and despite a chase and a slide and a save, the batsmen run back and forth for four! One run for each ten degrees Celcius.
2nd over: Australia 2-0 (Warner 2, Burns 0) Ferguson’s first ball in Test cricket now, and it’s fast but short on leg stump. Warner again gets a run to start an over, fending it away towards fine leg. Ferguson gets his line right against Burns though, with pace and a touch of seam away to beat a groping forward push. That’s lovely bowling. The same a touch wider and Burns leaves.
1st over: Australia 1-0 (Warner 1, Burns 0) Warner doing Warner things. He plays the trademark shot of his later career, dropping Southee’s first ball towards cover with an almost dead bat and sprinting a single. First ball of the match, alive to the opportunity. There was some inswing from Southee, right arm over to the left-hander, but Warner accommodated it. That becomes outswing to the right-handed Joe Burns, who connects nicely with a drive despite the movement but hits it straight to cover. Southee draws back his length slightly, and Burns defends stoutly. Ricky Ponting on the telly reckons that this Perth wicket will play quite like a first-day Gabba pitch, where Burns bats for Queensland, so chalk him up for a dispiriting ton today. Burns, not Ponting. Wouldn’t put it past Ponting though.
Milestones to keep one’s eye on: David Warner needs 53 runs to reach 7000 in Test cricket, the same mark that Steve Smith blew past against Pakistan. Warner has taken a few more innings, and his career average dipped below 50 with the battering he took in England this year, but he’s back up to high 48s and could be back past the mark by the end of the summer.
When New Zealand bat, I want to see if Tim Southee can hit a six to move to 73 career sixes, thus equalling Ricky Ponting. Southee is already 15th on the all-time list, ahead of big-hitting luminaries like AB de Villiers, Sanath Jayasuriya, Shahid Afridi, Ian Botham, Clive Lloyd, Ben Stokes and Sachin Tendulkar.
Teams
Boult is out, Lockie Ferguson will make his Test debut. A handy inclusion on this wicket where he can unleash his pace and his short ball. The seam-up all-rounder Colin de Grandhomme has recovered from his recent injury.
Australia
David Warner
Joe Burns
Marnus Labuschagne
Steve Smith
Matthew Wade
Travis Head
Tim Paine
Pat Cummins
Mitchell Starc
Nathan Lyon
Josh Hazlewood
New Zealand
Tom Latham
Jeet Raval
Kane Williamson
Ross Taylor
Henry Nicholls
BJ Watling
Colin de Grandhomme
Mitchell Santner
Tim Southee
Neil Wagner
Lockie Ferguson
Australia win the toss and bat
No surprises there – Tim Paine says with a smile that after bowling first at The Oval, he’ll never do it again. Best to bat first on this surface though. Kane Williamson smiles wryly at the thought of standing in the field for another 600-run innings, and says there’s some moisture in the wicket so they’ll just have to make the most of it. Good luck…
Preamble
Geoff Lemon
Aloha Hawaii. It’s Test time yet again, and time for New Zealand to become the main event of the cricketing summer. It’s, hot, hot, hot in Perth, 40-plus predicted for most of the match, and while Optus Stadium may presently sporting a greenish tinge as it did last year, it should offer bounce and bake and open up as this match progresses. Australia will field the same XI that pulverised Pakistan twice in a row, but Trent Boult looks to be missing for New Zealand through injury. More on line-ups as they come through. The No.2-ranked Kiwis are supposed to give Australia a run for their money in this three-match series. The formbook suggests New Zealand might even win. But precedent is against them: we’ve had 22 Tests on these shores since the Kiwis last won a Test series in Australia. That was at the Waca way back in 1985, the year Mental As Anything unleashed Live It Up on the expectant masses (RIP Andrew ‘Greedy’ Smith). It’s not crazy to imagine that New Zealand can compete on this tour but they’ll have to beat history as well as Australia. Sam Perry has already had his thoughts on this, as did I a few days ago.
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