Australia lead by 189 as Kiwis fightback. by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Scorecard:	Australia v New Zealand
Player:	ML Hayden, SM Katich, RT Ponting, MEK Hussey, MJ Clarke, A Symonds, SR Watson, BJ Haddin, B Lee, MG Johnson, AJ Redmond, JM How, LRPL Taylor, BB McCullum, DR Flynn
Event:	New Zealand in Australia 2008/09

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DateLine: 21st November 2008

 

It was an intriguing second day of the first test between Australia and New Zealand here in Brisbane.As many as 16 wickets fell on the second day making sure that the third day will be the last day of this test match. Ball dominated the bat right through and what was more surprising was the Australian batsmen struggling against a rookie New Zealand seam attack at home.Australia finished the day at 131 for 6 with Katich scoring half the runs and remaining unbeaten on 67 with Haddin for company.Earlier in the day New Zeland were all out for 156 giving Australia a lead of 58.

Earlier in the day New Zealand struggled against a four prone Aussie pace attack.They could not negotiate the hostile pace and bounce of the Aussie bowlers.Redmond went early edging to Ponting at slips.How was castled by Lee.Brendon McCullum from whom much was expected fell cheaply to Johnson. Only Taylor and Flynn showed some stomach for a fight. Taylor was out for 40 and Flynn ran out of partners and remained unbeaten on 39.Johnson cleaned up the tail and finished with 4 wickets.Lee finished one short of 300 test wickets.New Zealand would be ruing a great chance and squandering a great opportunity of building a huge first innings lead.Instead they ended up 58 runs short getting bowled out for 156.

Australia with a lead of 58 started poorly losing Hayden of the first ball caught behind of Chris Martin.Ricky Ponting tried to steady the ship with Katich with a mistimed pull and was caught by Redmond of O'Brien.Michael Hussey was given out caught behind when the bat was no where near the ball.Michael Clark was run out to a brilliant piece of fielding from Redmond.Australia were in tatters at 53 for 4. A fifty run partnership between Symonds and Katich got them out of a hole, but a double strike from Chris Martin getting Symonds to hook and trapping Watson in front lead to Australia finishing the day at 131 for 6, with a lead of 189. With Katich playing a lone hand Australia would want to set a target of atleast 250, which would be very stiff for New Zealand considering the rate at which wickets are falling each day.