KEY POINTS:
CHRISTCHURCH - Tom Moody must be thanking his lucky stars he made his players practise on green-tops before they departed for New Zealand.
The Aussie-born Sri Lankan coach forced his test squad to face fast-bowlers with new balls on outrageously green surfaces before they left, in the hope of facilitating a quick adjustment to New Zealand conditions.
And if Jade Stadium groundsman Chris Lewis is to be believed, it's probably just as well.
Lewis yesterday compared his test surface with the one used for the most recent test in Christchurch - against England in 2002, when 23 wickets fell in the first two days.
That was the match in which England lost their first two wickets in the first over and were bowled out for 228, after which New Zealand were knocked over for 147.
The pitch later flattened out to allow Graham Thorpe to score a double century and push England's lead through to 550, setting the stage for Nathan Astle's astonishing innings of 222 - at the time the fastest double-century (for 153 balls faced) on record.
Lewis said he expected there would be plenty of life in the surface tomorrow without posing quite as many problems as four years ago, and that whichever captain won the toss would bowl first.
"The bowlers will find a bit in it early on, as usual," said Lewis. "There'll be a bit of zip around with the new ball just as there was for the last test here.
"It shouldn't be quite that fiery but we've kept a lot of grass on it - 9mm, which is about the length of your thumbnail, so it'll be quite hairy. The grass will help to hold the moisture in the pitch and that's a key ingredient for a five-day test.
"Would I bowl first? Yep, definitely."
The long-time Canterbury curator said his main task was trying to find a nice balance between the batting paradise prepared for the 2001 test at Christchurch against Pakistan - which yielded two double centuries and two tons - and the one used against England a year later.
