Australian Cricket: Australia Vs New Zealand, 2nd test, review

Australian Cricket: Australia win 2^nd test by an innings.

 

The Australian Cricket Team has completed their rout of their New Zealand counterparts in the last session of the first day winning by more then an innings.  The test match showed some promise of being turned into a contest when the Kiwi openers How and Redmond successfully negotiated a tense final session to stumps on day 3 to give the Kiwi’s the whole fourth day to chase down the Australian first innings lead and give them a chance of a draw or even better – a victory.  However, Brett Lee had other ideas, with a controlled bowling effort Lee forced the Opener Redmond into a false shot and followed up with another quick wicket.  Four and a bit hours later Chris Martin was dismissed four his 6^th pair in his international career – a record he his likely to continue to improve upon, laid the Kiwi’s to rest.  A batting performances that can only be described as another missed opportunity to show they are capable of playing good consistent cricket against quality opposition over the whole five days.

 

New Zealand cricket is in a sad state and the loss to Australia in Adelaide brings to end the coaching career of Bracewell.  Maybe a bit of change at the top will help the young players develop into world class cricketers.

 

I personally, would like to note that the New Zealand bowling attack has been superb over the two game series. Nice tight consistent lines as well as well thought out and aggressive fields gave New Zealand a chance in the first test and would have kept the New Zealand cricket team in a better position if it was not for a few simple missed chances in the field.

 

On the other hand we have the Australian Cricket team whose home media has spent the last two months destroying them for the lack of runs and inability to take 40 wickets.  Weren’t they proven wrong in this test.  A stunning innings by Brad Haddin has effectively help silence the media on this issue and also the more personal issue of him belonging in the test team.  A return to form in the field and for bowlers, Brett Lee and a fantastic bowling effort from Hauritz has given Australia hope of completing a good summer of cricket against a much strong South African line up.

 

Questions arising from this test are two fold, Is this team that the New Zealand Cricket Board seem intent to stick with capable of standing up and playing high quality test match cricket? And is the return to form for the Australian team going to carry over to the series against South Africa starting on December 17? Please feel free to leave a comment with your response to these questions or check out other articles delving in to these issues.

 

Related Articles:

 

-         The New Zealand Cricket team: Can they stand up?

-         The South African tour – Will Australia beat an improved SA touring party?

-         One Day to go

-         Cricket players: Brad Haddin.

Advertisement