Cricket: Valiant Black Caps ignore the script

Daniel Vettori and teammates celebrate the wicket of Simon Katich during the second test match against Australia. Photo / Getty Images

Scorecard

The second test began as a carbon copy of the first.

The script had Ricky Ponting winning the toss. Check.

Cue New Zealand matching Australia until drinks in the middle session having taken three wickets. Check.

New Zealand then takes Australia's last seven wickets for 49 runs to dismiss the visitors for 231. Now hang on a minute ...

Extraordinary scenes enveloped the Seddon Park oval as the Black Caps produced a remarkable turnaround from the flaky display in Wellington last week.

Whatever approach has been used around the whiteboard or in the nets, it appears to have made a difference.

Perhaps it was the incentive of repaying new centurion captain Daniel Vettori for his valour in carrying the side in recent seasons. This was suddenly a unit of confident competitors.

For starters, the partnerships with the ball dove-tailed beautifully. Vettori regularly rotated his bowlers and reaped the benefit as fresh, keen pacemen bounded out of their run-ups while the skipper and Jeetan Patel responded with slow bowling guile.

The only time the Black Caps appeared slightly vulnerable was in the half an hour after lunch when they conceded 10 boundaries.

Of the pace bowlers, Tim Southee's resurgence was the most exceptional. His four for 61 from 19 overs was in stark contrast to his none for 68 in his sole outing at the Basin Reserve.

However, Southee has revelled under similar pressure recently when he came back in the final Chappell-Hadlee one-dayer after getting carted in the previous match.

That's ultimately a good sign in a fledgling fast bowler and his wickets were testimony to his toil at his home ground.

He snaffled Shane Watson into a false pull, tempted Michael Hussey into a drive from a ball tantalisingly pitched up on off, had Brad Haddin caught and bowled to a ball that appeared to hold up and Marcus North was plumb to what proved a waste of a referral.

"It was good to give the selectors some payback for sticking with me," said Southee. "I wasn't too sure I'd be playing after my disappointing role in Wellington. We bowled well as a unit though and I happened to get the wickets."

Vettori admitted Southee was only saved from the axe by Daryl Tuffey's broken hand.

"He was under some pressure and probably wouldn't have played. So to reward our faith against a formidable opponent was nice."

Southee also impressed Simon Katich: "I wouldn't say he surprised us. He got the ball to swing, which is his strength. His spell with the changed ball got them back in the game. In the first 40-odd overs, the ball hadn't swung much. Then the one that came out started to move, so he deserves credit because Huss [Michael Hussey] and I felt good. When he knocked Huss over, things started to happen for them."

Katich's 88 was the sixth time he's been dismissed between 80 and 99 in his last 12 innings since November but he was playing it down in the context of the Australian total.

"The disappointing thing over the summer has not so much been getting out in the 90s but not going on when I felt set. Once you get a hundred, you're disappointed if you get out for under 110 [as happened against Pakistan in January]. That's more of a frustration."

After Tim McIntosh's off stump was dispatched in the opening over, New Zealand was guided to stumps by Mathew Sinclair and BJ Watling.

Sinclair is returning to tests for the first time in over two years and, despite a poor record against Australia, received a ringing endorsement on some recent batting adjustments from previous critic Martin Crowe.

That will have boosted his confidence and seems on the mark - judging by a couple of his strokes leaning into balls on middle and leg which were duly clipped through the on-side.

It was fair pitch but not easy to play on. There was a little pace and bounce but not excessively slow and the ball failed to seam around to any great degree, despite a green tinge to the eye from the stand.

Much of that verdant illusion had faded by the middle session.

The match shapes as a war of attrition today. The onus goes on the Black Caps top order to remain resilient and push towards a total of at least 350, given the conditions.

That would offer a chance to win the test and finally give the likes of Vettori, Brendon McCullum and the bowlers the rest they so richly deserve after a benchmark of a day in the field - and the even richer chance of, for once, putting the Australians under pressure.