After months of anticipation, thousands watching with optimism, the Black Caps delivered some of their grisliest cricket in a decade.
New Zealand tonight ended day two of the first test hoping for another miracle, having awoken this morning with enhanced ambitions of a rare victory over Australia.
The tourists began on 279-9 at the Basin Reserve. The hosts had a good argument for holding the advantage. Then, in two unseemly sessions, the match went the way it so often does when these teams meet.
A record 10th-wicket stand; a ruinous mid-pitch collision; two in-form batters falling for ducks; another two departing in as many deliveries.
Suddenly, the Black Caps were 29-5, still trailing the defending world champions by 354 runs, any designs on a series win almost dashed.
But not completely. Not after Glenn Phillips counter-punched with 71 from 70 balls to help his side stagger to 179, before Tim Southee removed Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne to leave Australia on 13-2 at stumps.
And not after what happened in Wellington last summer, when the hosts were similarly floundering and forced to follow-on by England, only to mount an improbable comeback that became a miraculous one-run win.
New Zealand on that occasion started their second turn 226 runs in arrears. This time, when the tourists eschewed the follow-on, they were 204 behind and ruing a first session in which they were toyed with by a final-wicket pair.
Much credit belonged to Cameron Green, who conducted an exhibition for batting in such circumstances while converting a day-one century into a new test best of 174no. Josh Hazlewood also acquitted himself well while making 22, his highest score in eight years.
But the Black Caps were sloppy in execution and bereft in imagination, allowing Green to do as he pleased while frustration steadily grew.
After the No 4 cracked a couple of sixes and Hazlewood stroked early boundaries, Southee was quick to position fielders on the legside boundary while instructing his bowlers to go short.
Regardless of the merits of that tactic — at home on what had been a helpful track while bowling to No 11 — the attack was incapable of carrying it out.
Instead of building pressure, let alone taking a wicket, the bowlers sent their bouncers well over the batters and, in the case of Scott Kuggeleijn, even to the boundary. New Zealand conceded 20 wides and 41 extras in total — the third-highest they had allowed in test history.
Overs proceeded in a numbingly predictable pattern: Green would begin on strike, turn down a single, ignore a short ball, collect a boundary, and easily make his way to the opposite end to do it all again.
It was a frustrating morning for Matt Henry and the Black Caps. Photo / Photosport
After lunch was delayed, the hosts’ misery extended, Matt Henry finally ended the innings by getting Hazlewood caught to finish with his second five-wicket haul in tests.
The 10th-wicket stand had reached at 116, surpassing the previous best by any nation against New Zealand: the 114 infamously put on by Australia’s Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie in 2004.
Demoralised that day by two tailenders scoring half-centuries, the Black Caps summarily collapsed to 76 all out. And history seemed set to repeat as a wretched first session was followed by an embarrassing second.
Tom Latham’s fifth-over dismissal by Mitchell Starc was bad but not shocking; the opener is approaching a year without a test half-century.
Shocking was what happened next, as Kane Williamson followed three centuries in four innings against South Africa by being run out for zero from his second ball, calling for a single that wasn’t there and colliding with Will Young.
A double-centurion last month, Rachin Ravindra also fell for a three-ball duck, slashing to point in a premature end to his first test innings in his hometown.
Daryl Mitchell was a rare wicket that owed to good bowling, nicking behind off Pat Cummins, while the next ball Will Young tickled Mitch Marsh around the corner to the keeper.
Phillips and Tom Blundell at least offered some fight, though the former was fortunate to escape two edges early in his innings. The pair added 84 from 86 balls before Blundell was caught in close off Nathan Lyon.
The innings was then encapsulated by a kamikaze mission from Kuggeleijn, whose selection was touted by New Zealand as strengthening the batting. With Phillips needing as much strike as possible, the test novice survived an lbw shout from Lyon first ball before dancing down the wicket and sending a simple catch straight to deep midwicket.
The tail wrapped up, Southee looked to have concluded the day with a couple of positive moments, only to spill Lyon at third slip from Henry’s final ball. It was a much more appropriate end.
