A graphical view of Australia v New Zealand, 1st Test Match, Brisbane, played 18-21 November 2004. by Jack Solock

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Scorecard:

Australia v New Zealand

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Two mammoth late wicket partnerships enabled Australia to turn the 1st Test match of the 2004-05 Trans-Tasman Trophy series v New Zealand, destroying the Black Ferns by an innings and 156 runs, and retaining the Trophy inside four days. It was a match that halfway through, no one would have thought would be an innings blowout.

 

 

The graph shows New Zealand on the back foot, well and truly in trouble after winning the toss and batting. At 206/7, they looked like they had squandered whatever advantage they might have batting first and seemed in for a long three or, at most, four days. Here, however, some very useful late wicket partnerships between Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori (58), Kyle Mills (53), and Chris Martin (36) dragged New Zealand to a respectable 353. Oram's 126* was his highest Test score and 2nd Test century. It couldn't have come at a more important time.

 

And when New Zealand had Australia at 222/5 early on the 3rd day, the Black Ferns were dreaming of a famous victory. But a dream is all it was. New Zealand has become known for their late wicket obduracy in adding to their total. But here the world champions taught them what late wicket obduracy was all about. After being limited to 222 for their first 63.1 overs, Australia added 363 for their last 90.4. And of these 90.4 overs, 79.5 (88%) were consumed by two partnerships worth 330 runs (91% of the runs for the last 5 wickets). These two partnerships took the game away from New Zealand, crushing the spirit out of them just as a boa constrictor crushes the life out of its prey (see below). The Michael Clarke-Adam Gilchrist 216 run 6th wicket stand broke the old 6th wicket record partnership for Australia v New Zealand set by Allan Border and Greg Matthews (197) in Brisbane in November 1985 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/35/f35622.html).

 

For Clarke this partnership was part of magnificent 141, making him only the third Australian, and sixth player in Test history to score a century on tour and home debut. The other Australians were Harry Graham--107 v England at Lords in July 1893 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/3/f3679.html) & 105 at Sydney in February 1895 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/3/f3934.html), and Kepler Wessels--162 v England at Brisbane in November 1982 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/33/f33986.html) & 141 v Sri Lanka at Kandy in April 1983 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/34/f34213.html). Clarke's road debut hundred (151) came v India at Bangalore in October of 2004 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/47/f47682.html).

 

The other non-Australians to do it were: Kumar Shri Ranjitsinhji (England)--154* v Australia at Manchester in July 1896 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/4/f4271.html) & 175 at Sydney in December 1897 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/4/f4583.html); Lawrence Rowe (West Indies)--214 and 100* v New Zealand at Kingston in February 1972 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/28/f28798.html) & 107 v Australia at Brisbane in November 1975 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/30/f30572.html); and Azhar Mahmood (Pakistan)--128* v South Africa at Rawalpindi in October 1997 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/42/f42802.html) & 136 at Johannesburg in February 1998. (http://www.cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/43/f43111.html).

 

While the 6th wicket partnership put Australia ahead in the match, it was the 10th wicket partnership between fast bowlers Jason Gillespie and Glenn McGrath that knocked the stuffing out of New Zealand. For Gillespie to play a two hour and 35 minute knock wasn't terribly surprising. He had played a match saving two hour and 45 minute knock as a night watchman with Damien Martyn against India at Chennai as recently as five weeks ago (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Articles/1/1994.html). But for McGrath, who's highest previous score was 39 v West Indies at Port of Spain in March 1999 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/43/f43842.html), and who's average going into this match was less than seven, to score 61 in two hours and 19 minutes (facing only 91 balls!), and be a part of a crushing 114 tenth wicket partnership, was simply amazing. It was easily the highest tenth wicket partnership for Australia v New Zealand, eclipsing the 60 scored by Doug Walters and Jim Higgs at Melbourne in December 1980 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/33/f33047.html). It was the second highest tenth wicket partnership in the history of Australian Test cricket, behind the 127 by Johnny Taylor and Arthur Mailey v England at Sydney in December 1924 (http://cricketarchive.com/Archive/Scorecards/f/10/f10866.html).

 

The result was immediate and unsurprising, as the graph shows. The New Zealand second innings is a flat line, a sudden death syndrome of 76 runs in 36.2 overs. New Zealand's second innings were 38 runs less, taking one ball more, than Australia's tenth wicket partnership. The Black Ferns simply had no stomach for a fight after the Gillespie-McGrath onslaught.

 

In the context of this match, it is interesting to take a closeup look at the two big partnerships.

 

 

The graph shows that when Clarke and Gilchrist came together early on the 3rd day, New Zealand were in command, with a 131 run lead and five wickets down. After scratching around for about 10 overs, Clarke and Gilchrist took off, and the New Zealand attack simply had no answer (although Gilchrist did receive the benefit of the doubt on a close lbw shout to Vettori when on seven). In the next 30 odd overs they put on almost 200 runs, as the unrelenting upward slope shows.

 

But when the partnership ended, New Zealand were still in fairly decent shape. They trailed by less than 100, and with the Australian tail accompanying Gilchrist, they had reason to hope. Within 12 overs, at 471/9, New Zealand could reasonably expect to enter their second innings with around a 125 run deficit, certainly not where they would have liked to be at the beginning of the day, but still with some prospects of either a draw or perhaps even an unlikely comeback victory.

 

But the Gillespie-McGrath partnership put an end to those hopes. Their partnership was even more aggressive than the Clarke-Gilchrist one, although its aggressiveness came on the shoulders of the lead that Clarke-Gilchrist had worked long and hard to get. At the end of it, New Zealand were ground to dust, a victim of not only some great tail end batting, but also of the inability of their attack to penetrate the opposition and finish them off. Once again, as against England last summer, New Zealand showed that without Shane Bond, their one true strike bowler, they are unable to run through quality sides. And their lack of scoring power will continue to make that weakness hurt them.

 

Sources for this article:
Alex Brown--Sydney Morning Herald
Chris Barclay--New Zealand Press Association via New Zealand Herald (Auckland)
Andrew Miller, Martin Williamson, and Steven Lynch--Wisden Cricinfo
Wisden Cricinfo ball by ball commentary
cricketarchive.com scorecards
Wisden Cricketer's Almanack, 2004 Edition

 

(Article: Copyright © 2004 Jack Solock)