Cricket: Fleming gets reminder of blackest days as captain

Stephen Fleming

New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming has compared his side to the infamous "Invalids" of 2000, rekindling memories from one of the darkest moments of his career.

The country's most successful captain was moved to make the comparison yesterday after his team not only slid to their most ignominious defeat of an already depressing series against Australia, but lost yet another front-line player - Nathan Astle - to injury.

Astle damaged the AC joint of his right shoulder while diving in the slips cordon and has been ruled out of Saturday's final one-dayer, forcing coach John Bracewell to call up Auckland batting all-rounder Tama Canning.

Whatever Astle's prognosis, you couldn't get away from the feeling of deja vu yesterday, as Fleming's bunch of misfits slumped to a seven-wicket drubbing at the hands of an Australian team resting two of their best batsmen.

Sent in to bat, New Zealand at least threatened to post a competitive score before being eventually bowled out for 233, following some promising but ultimately inadequate contributions from Fleming, Astle, Craig McMillan and Chris Cairns.

In reply, Australia plundered the makeshift attack, smashing debutant Lance Hamilton and the recalled Jeff Wilson for eight an over, and dominating the hosts to such an extent that the winning runs were struck in the 35th over - with 15.4 overs to spare.

The last time New Zealand toured South Africa, Fleming found himself in a similar position, losing all the one-dayers against the Proteas and then watching as his side were crushed in the tests at Bloemfontein and Port Elizabeth.

The only thing he lost more of was players, with nine out of action at one stage, and others dropping so frequently that a headcount became obligatory at the hotel breakfast every morning.

Fleming later offered to resign as the New Zealand captain.

"I'm a little bit stronger about what needs to be done here but it doesn't make it any easier," he said.

"It still hurts. The team hurts a lot, as they probably should do."

The best part of New Zealand's performance yesterday was the opening stand of 84 between Fleming and Astle, but the worst was an embarrassingly harmless bowling attack, which the Australians treated like something from a World Cup qualifier.

Hamilton and Wilson looked ill-equipped to deal with the blitzkrieg, and with Astle off the field with his shoulder injury and Daniel Vettori resting, New Zealand's goose was cooked well before the start of the 20th over.

Stand-in skipper Adam Gilchrist led the charge with 54 off 37 balls, including one six that sailed into Cambridge Tce, and his sense of urgency appeared to be shared by Simon Katich and Andrew Symonds, both of whom scored at better than a run a ball.

Together with Damien Martyn, who top-scored for his team with a slightly more sedate 65, the top four batsmen ensured that the target was eclipsed in a mere 146 minutes, to stretch the series lead out to four-nil with a game to play. And if New Zealand were hoping for a fresh start in the tests, they received a reminder of the size of their upcoming task yesterday from Gilchrist, who made a point of singing the praises of fast-bowler Brett Lee.

"He's reminding me a lot of when he was here five years ago, when he was just at the start of his test career," said Gilchrist.

"His speeds have consistently been in the 150s, his control has been outstanding, and he's hitting the gloves nicely - so he's obviously pushing hard for a test recall.

"But the other guys have done nothing wrong so that's going to be an extremely interesting decision."