Thursday 26 March 2009

NZ vs India - Napier - 2nd Test - Day One

Now, I don’t mind days of Test cricket like those. 

 

We got to Napier on Monday and trained on Tuesday.  I had a look at the pitch on Tuesday morning and then, still two days out from the Test match, I was pretty keen for a bat on it.  It’s always a road up here; it’s as close to Adelaide as you going to find in NZ.  I had another look at the track on Wednesday and I still wanted to bat; so it was no surprise when Dan won the toss this morning and chose to bat first. 

 

We were a little surprised when Sehwag was at the toss with Dan, MS wasn’t to be playing; quick laugh at an overheard joke that he wasn’t playing because Craig McMillan (ICL) was in the commentary box. 

 

We were twenty one without loss after seven overs, not a bad start, and then it all went wrong for three overs.  Sharma hit his lengths immaculately from ball one and picked up the first wicket.  Mac might have been a touch unlucky, given out caught behind; replays suggesting he didn’t get a touch on it.  How, then, a little late on one, chopped it back onto his stumps and next ball from Khan, a short ball, and Guppy’s fended it to gully of his glove.  Twenty three for 3 in the 11th, what a difference a couple of overs make and I can tell you that there was that uncomfortable feeling around the shed at the time. 

 

Jesse joined Rossco out there and they did some special things together. They rewrote the record books with a partnership of 271 in 59.2 overs.  That was the highest partnership for all wickets vs India and also the highest 4th wicket partnership vs all teams.  Amazing that Rossco and Jesse, in their 16th and 8th Tests respectively, could carve out something so special in a situation that desperately needed a partnership, of note, to turn our day right around.  It was 294 when Rossco departed with one of his trademark slog sweeps; we hadn’t seen it this innings till now, a top edge and a great catch right in front of where we were sitting ended his innings.  Their partnership really gave us the chance to make it our day.  

 

Jesse and Franky saw us through to stumps although the later may have been a little lucky with one decision towards the end; you take the luck when you get it because it sure bites you in the bum at other times.  There was one nervous Baz sitting next to me towards the end, “just get through it Frank” we kept hearing.

 

So my day was spent on the couches in the viewing area, trying to stay warm as in the shade with the little breeze that was around it was pretty cold; helping out with the crosswords that were being done, where I could; having a couple of coffees; eating sandwiches; just basically doing as little as possible so that I’ll be as fresh as possible for our turn out in the field.

 

Hopefully by the morning, my morning, someone will tick over the 1,000,000th view of this blog in my 69th entry.  That’s a pretty scary number.  Thank you all for reading and commenting! 

 

A mate of mine has a couple of auctions running at the moment; proceeds will go towards the New Zealand Softball Team.  Check it out; your hero’s captured on a cricket ball.  http://shop.ebay.com/merchant/twi14_W0QQ_nkwZQQ_armrsZ1QQ_fromZQQ_mdoZ

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Well played NZ :)

Joe Antony said...

Looks like you guys gonna get a very decent score to bowl at, you will be able to test few tacticts to pressurize the indians, this is going to be a good contest to watch.

Joe Antony said...

McMillian on the commentary box... that was hilarious. Truly, we indian fans hate the Bcci&Ipl bullying the international boards on ICL grounds. We loved watching shane bond here, truly a great miss for NZ because of these Bcci bozos.

Unknown said...

This is probably the best start NZ could have got.. Capitalize on it .. Bat for as long as you one. Put 600+ before end of day two. Then you have three days to get 20 wickets. Plus there is no MS. He somehow keeps out when India is most likely to lose. Remember one series against SL that he skipped because he wanted to rest and India lost the series in SL.

Iain, bowl hard and give it everything you got.. your chance to be a hero. Doesnt 50/6 sound great for bowling figure?

shadow_sun said...

Hey Iain....Never knew NZ players wrote blogs too...nice to know that though..being a fervent indian fan it was a rough day from where I stand but kudos to Ross and Jesse for batting the way they did....jesse seems to be 'the find' for you on this Indian tour..All the best

Unknown said...

3 for 23, a possible 4 for 25 and it kind of threatened to pan out like the last one again for a while, not anymore. :-) I have seldom seen so many dropped chances making the opposition pay so much in a single match leave aside an innings. This was certainly one of those.

India are now going to find it real tough getting back into this match, not because NZ have scored so many runs in a day, but because of the the opportunities that went abegging leading to a big score of a struggling player.

It will be interesting to see how much dent Ross' innings has delivered to the prospects of an Indian win here. If NZ manage to score 550+ from here on, I'd say they'd be in a position of not loosing this one... May be they can then think of calling the shots as well - this however would depend largely on Sehwag and Tendulkar's approach towards their innings.

Ryder, as expected played beautifully and is going through a purple patch. I wonder how in every series, India invariably find one player whom they never find a clue of, Andy Flower, Graham Gooch, Jimmy Adams, Matt Hayden, Michael Clarke etc. are but a few to be cited here.

I hope India quickly decipher Ryder code, which at the moment they do not seem to be doing.

Nevertheless, he's one of the few up and coming southpaws who'll be written about in the times to come - along with JP Duminy and Phil Hughes. I wish him luck.

I would not wish you luck this time around though, that you've nothing to complain about now... Loads of runs on the board, a tiring opposition batting lineup and your tail's up at the prospect of a five-for, what else do you need beyond that? :-)

Well played NZ.

To life!
~

Anarchangel said...

Hey Iain, do you know if your hit counter counts RSS feed collections?

Here's hoping for s few more great days like yesterday! If only I could watch this stuff in the US!

Unknown said...

On they radio commentary they mentioned you were asleep at one stage. Was that true?

Amith Kumar said...

Iain ...u bowl gr8 and a good bowling action. All the best for this current test. How did u feel when u bowl to Master Blaster..??

Unknown said...

hey, seems like you got it right this time. NZ on verge of big score.

Great playing and you got the well deserved rest to come out strong at indian batsman..

All the best

The Rock said...

Well played Newzealand.

The first day won by newzeland. Let us see whether NZ rides on the tons of jesse and rosso or collapse in this session?

If 1st session goes well and dominant by NZ, then i see the series is going to level

indian said...

you newzeland players are cheaters. yesterday franklin edged one to the wicketkeeper but still he stayed the cease instead of walking back to the pavilion. you can take leaf out of india's captain mahender singh dhoni. he didn't even waited for umpire decision. new zelnad tean a disgrace to game of cricket.

Mark said...

Yes Indian - not like Tendulkar's "catch" in the first test. Was he trying to go for the "one bounce one hand rule" that we use in backyard cricket?

Nitin said...

Ian...i believe the track is real batting beauty...you won't be able to get wicket...only way you can get when Indians will give it to you...all the best for your bowling performance..

rAhul said...

best of luck for u...

But ofcourse i will still hope that master blaster wud do some blast tomorrow and steals or atleast make this test match Draw.

btw why don't u add a visitor counter for ur blog

Wellingtonbala said...

Nice day's work Iain. Wish NZ comes to Wellington 1 all.