Cricket: Astle defends batting strategy

Nathan Astle hooks a ball on his way to 114 against Sri Lanka on the second day in the first cricket test at McLean Park in Napier. Picture / Fotopress

Nathan Astle has leapt to the defence of New Zealand's batting tactics after a day of milestones in the first test against Sri Lanka.

Fresh from posting his 10th test century and leading his team to a ground-record total of 561 on the second day of the match, Astle was still on the front foot at the end-of-play media conference, insisting that any calls for a declaration had been misguided.

Fuelled by Astle's 114 and a bitter-sweet 99 from Brendon McCullum, New Zealand batted deep into the final session in the search of runs, and were only bowled out after a useful cameo from Paul Wiseman and a maiden half-century from James Franklin.

There was just enough time in the gloaming for Sri Lanka to frolic to 48 without loss, suggesting that Astle had a point when he claimed that scoring as many runs as possible was a priority on the flat McLean Park pitch.

"The way the wicket is, the best thing to do is to get as many runs as possible and then try to knock them over twice, if you can," he said.

"To have declared earlier on 400-odd would have let them back into the game, whereas this way they're pretty much out of it. The way I see it at the moment, only one team can win."

Astle was entitled to an opinion after spending much of the afternoon milking an inexperienced Sri Lankan attack and torturing a flagging fielding unit; he and McCullum adding 129 for the sixth wicket.

The veteran right-hander played sedately but with purpose, striking a dismissive boundary off legspinner Upul Chandana to bring up his first century in 20 innings - since his 103 at Ahmedabad in October 2003.

Armed with a new graphite-strengthened Kookaburra bat, which is supposed to be more rigid and subsequently more powerful, Astle looked comfortable against all the Sri Lankan bowlers apart from Lasith "Slinga" Malinga, who took four wickets.

Malinga, who sent back Stephen Fleming on Monday, yesterday deceived Hamish Marshall, McCullum and Kyle Mills, and was desperately unlucky not to add Wiseman and Franklin to his tally as he searched for his maiden five-wicket bag.

For all that, his dismissal of McCullum was a dramatic blow for the New Zealand wicketkeeper, who was knocked over for 96 at Lord's last summer, and seemed to be compelling form as he raced through the 90s.

Operating in the 138-140km/h region, 21-year-old Malinga had the presence of mind to dish up a well-disguised slower ball which had umpire Steve Bucknor nodding in agreement, and McCullum departing with his hands on his head.

"It was very disappointing - I was fairly pissed off with myself," he said afterwards. "I'd worked pretty hard to get into the 90s and was just one shot away from scoring a 100.

"I don't think I changed much, maybe I looked to be a bit more positive after the Lord's experience. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen again."

Malinga sliced through Mills with a calf-high full-toss soon after, but the productivity of Franklin and Wiseman only seemed to underline Astle's warnings of an exceptionally flat pitch; even Chris Martin managed to survive four balls.

The final confirmation was when Sanath Jayasuriya and Marvan Atapattu batted freely in the 12 overs before stumps, the pair romping along at four an over and looking ominously comfortable against Franklin, Martin and Mills.

"Maybe the pitch might offer something on the fifth day but I think it's going to be very tough getting 20 wickets," Astle said.

"It's just a good, flat batting wicket with no sideways movement, stuff-all swing and not much turn, so at the moment it's pretty much looking like hard work."