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.
