Cricket: Lee scares life out of the Black Caps

Brett Lee takes Craig McMillan's wicket. Picture / Chris Skelton

Zeus swooped down from his temporary lair on Mount Eden yesterday, hurling lightning bolts at 22 yards and sending small children armed only with flimsy willow clubs scurrying back to their sheds. Only this Zeus stood less than six-feet tall and wore a blond mane that told of a life spent near Australia's famed beaches rather than Olympia.

Brett Lee had the lightning bit sussed, continuing his complete mastery over New Zealand's top order yesterday, claiming three wickets for five runs - three of which were wides - in his opening spell. New Zealand, chasing a good, but not overwhelming, 252 were out of the match at 28-5 by the time Lee took a rest in the shadow of the terraces.

Asked whether he felt the Black Caps were scared of him, Lee said: "I wouldn't go that far." But it is abundantly clear he has a psychological hold over them.

In the end, New Zealand limped through to 105 to go 1-0 down in the three-match Chappell-Hadlee Trophy, posting their sixth lowest total in ODI cricket in the process.

As capitulations go, this was humiliating. The Marshall twins, Hamish and James, and Craig McMillan looked completely incapable of dealing with Lee. Lou Vincent and Scott Styris tried to make hay while facing the friendlier Nathan Bracken and perished to miscalculated attacking shots.

And Nathan Astle, who looked the soundest of the top order, loosened up upon the finish of Lee's spell and chipped out to Stuart Clark's third ball.

At 33-6 the terraces, which made up the majority of the 21,800-strong crowd, felt they had no option but to continue the sort of feral behaviour that keeps security busy. While pitch invasions remain a blight at Eden Park, it was no surprise many sought their own entertainment.

They weren't getting any from the Black Caps.

Dan Vettori played the gallant captain post-match, shielding his batsmen from too much blame.

"I'd probably put it down more to the way they bowled," he said. "Brett came in and bowled an exceptional spell and he was ably backed up by [Nathan] Bracken and [Stuart] Clark. I think we got tied down by how well they bowled and our shots were a result of that."

Dress it up however you want, the New Zealand batting was schoolboy-ish, and that's a discredit to many first XIs.

Ricky Ponting summed it up nicely: "There'll be a few of their batsmen that wouldn't be overly happy with the way they were dismissed tonight," he said bluntly. "There were a few ugly ones there. I don't know what they're thinking, all I know is Brett's bowling well, he's bowling fast and he's going to be difficult to play against." '

Unfortunately New Zealand will not be able to return fire until Christchurch, with Shane Bond almost certainly ruled out of the second ODI in Wellington on Wednesday.

Lee was difficult to see coming out of the flimsy sightscreen at the ASB Stand end but he could have been bowling watermelons decked with bells and flashing lights and the top order would still have struggled to pick it up.

Only Christopher Cairns, not good enough for the tour of South Africa, showed the requisite fight.

New Zealand has now lost their last seven against Australia and their last five completed matches after the 0-4 rout in South Africa.

The drop-in wicket was not conducive to free-flowing strokeplay but neither was it a minefield. After all, Australia eked out 252.

In truth that was probably 30 runs more than they should have amassed, given that no batsman, except Ricky Ponting briefly, managed to master the conditions.

Ponting's was a curious knock. He came to the crease, got an awkward lifter early and seemed to decide: "I don't like the look of this much so let's get on with it."

He hit three sixes and five fours in his 63 runs and shared a 117-run partnership with Simon Katich (54).

After that there were robust cameos from Andrew Symonds (44), Michael Clarke (31) and, inevitably, Michael Hussey (22no) but not enough to make sure you'd never forget your day at the cricket.

New Zealand has few options, although Vettori hinted that Brendon McCullum could be used higher in the order. "There is scope to do something like that," he said.


Scoreboard:


Australia
A Gilchrist c Astle b Franklin 3
S Katich c Vettori b Styris 54
R Ponting lbw b Vettori 63
B Hodge b Styris 13
A Symonds b Vettori 44
M Clarke c Franklin b Cairns 31
M Hussey not out 21
B Lee b Cairns 0
B Hogg c Vettori b Mills 4
N Bracken not out 1
Extras (6lb, 3nb, 9w) 18
Total (for 8 wkts, 50 overs) 252


Fall: 4 (Gilchrist), 121 (Katich), 136 (Ponting), 148 (Hodge), 207 (Symonds), 230 (Clarke), 231 (Lee), 249 (Hogg).


Bowling: K Mills 10-1-35-1 (1w, 1nb), J Franklin 4-0-29-1, J Oram 7-0-54-0 (1w), C Cairns 9-0-54-2 (2nb, 1w), S Styris 10-0-45-2 (1w), D Vettori 10-1-29-2 (5w).


New Zealand
L Vincent b Bracken 4
N Astle c Clarke b Clark 14
H Marshall b Lee 5
S Styris c Clarke b Bracken 1
J Marshall lbw b Lee 1
C McMillan c Hussey b Lee 0
C Cairns not out 37
J Oram b Clark 23
B McCullum c White c Clark 2
D Vettori c Ponting b Symonds 8
J Franklin c Gilchrist b Symonds 0
Extras (4b, 1lb, 5w) 10
Total (for 10 wkts, 27.4 overs) 105


Fall: 5 (Vincent), 16 (H Marshall), 19 (Styris), 20 (J Marshall), 28 (McMillan), 33 (Astle), 74 (Oram), 82 (McCullum), 105 (Vettori), 105 (Franklin).


Bowling: B Lee 6-4-5-3 (3w), N Bracken 8-0-40-2 (1w), S Clark 7-1-19-3 (1w), A Symonds 5.4-1-32-2, C White 1-0-4-0.


Result: Australia won by 147 runs, lead three-match series 1-0.
The second match is in Wellington on Wednesday.


- HERALD ON SUNDAY, NZPA