Wynne Gray: This stuff is almost as boring as Bill's batting

Hagley Oval looked great with 8000 cricket fans packed into the ground but the cricket was messy. Photo / Brett Phibbs

Bill Lawry, the patron saint of stonewall defence, was profuse about David Warner's batting pyrotechnics.

It seemed odd from someone who bored bowlers into submission with his ability to leave any delivery wide of his stumps and defend the rest.

But there he was in mid-afternoon raving about Warner even though the pugnacious left-hander had long vacated the crease. Indeed, Joe Burns and Usman Khawaja were past their half century mark while Lawry continued to talk about Warner.

If that was the only high point either side of the Tasman, it didn't say much for the cricket.

Hagley Oval looked great with 8000 cricket fans packed into the ground but the cricket was messy. Tuning in after a morning elsewhere to find Milinda Siriwardana and Nuwan Kulasekara batting was a shock even from the Sri Lankan deck of batting cards. Matt Henry had four wickets in less time than it took to get a pie - game over.

Switch over to the MCG and Warner was flaying the wayward West Indies. Kapow went the Kaboom or was it the other way around. Warner's strike rate rocketed to 191.66 to match Lawry's heart-rate before he hit himself out for 23 off 12 balls.

The opener will argue it was the ultimate sacrifice as Burns, Khawaja, Steve Smith and Adam Voges had smorgasbord centuries before Australia declared after scoring 1134 runs for seven wickets in their two test innings against the visitors.

New Zealand should be annoyed they missed a trick in their series loss against the Aussies before Christmas. But a month or so from now, the rematch this side of the Ditch is looking more appealing.