New Zealand's cricketers were ''astonished" at the pre-first test late night behaviour of teammates Jesse Ryder and Doug Bracewell.

Australia's selectors face their most important decision since the recall of Mitchell Johnson, as they mull the best response to Shane Watson's late scratching.

India, England and Australia gain all the power despite heavy condemnation, Sri Lanka calling it illegal.

You can't escape the feeling there are more twists to come over the final two days of a remarkable opening test against India.

Cricket, as steeped in off-field intrigue as on-field subtleties, somehow survives as our summer sport.

Having been sent in and had their top order swept away, New Zealand scrapped hard and by stumps had decisively won back the honours from India at Eden Park yesterday.

The early history of test cricket runs parallel with the fall of empires and the rise of the modern nation state.

The Indian players walked up and down the Eden Park pitch for today's first test, peering at it as if searching for worms.

Success at Eden Park and/or the Basin Reserve will be hard earned. There can't be any corner-cutting, writes David Leggat.

Lest it be suggested New Zealand might be getting a touch cosily confident before today's first test against India, Brendon McCullum yesterday made it emphatically clear they're not.

The Black Caps will keep an unchanged eleven for tomorrow's first test against India in Auckland. Herald sports experts Andrew Alderson and Wynne Gray come in off the long run up to give their opinion in the chances for both teams.

Australia will assess the conditions in Centurion, Johannesburg, before deciding who fills George Bailey's vacant spot in the test side.

The focus of the New Zealand cricket team's recent success has rightly been on Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson and the conveyor belt of effective, competitive pace bowlers.

They have nippy fast-medium bowlers who will swing the ball and they can add the clever Zaheer Khan, writes Mark Richardson.

Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor further resuscitated the nations' cricketing pulse in the final one-day international against India.