Saturday, November 29, 2008

No century, otherwise according to script as Australia build: Second Test Day 2

Australia 3/241 (R Ponting 79, M Hussey 69 no, M Clarke 43 no) trail New Zealand 270 (B Lee 4/66) by 29 runs with 7 wickets in hand; Second Test Day 2 at Adelaide.

New Zealand's hopes of getting a competitive score, generally assumed to be at least 350, were exposed as lurid fantasies in the first session as Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson took the last 4 wickets while only 8 runs were added to the overnight total.

Australia's reply was pretty much as expected given a perfect day for cricket, a typical Adelaide second day pitch and the calibre of the opposition attack. Only Matthew Hayden's failure to score a century in his hundredth test (he was run out for 24) and Ricky Ponting's lapse in pulling to Ian O'Brien to midwicket when he was 79, turned out to be minor blots on the Australian copybook. Daniel Vettori was a cut above the other bowlers but he's already bowled 28 of his team's 79 overs (for 1/54) and there are still 17 wickets to take. The match should last all of tomorrow but it's hard to see it extending much beyond that.

Scorecard.

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