Party at the Cake Tin by Jim Ellingham

---

Scorecard:

New Zealand v Australia

---

DateLine: 28th February 2005

 

The first one day international had all the drama the makes fans of one day cricket leap into the air with despair and excitement as a game that ebbed and flowed constantly, proved the ideal kick start to the one day international series between the worlds number one ranked team and the worlds number two.

 

A crowd of around twenty three thousand occupied the impressive stadium to witness the occasion. It was unfortunate however that the loutish behaviour of many of these made the match a less then pleasurable experience for some players and spectators. While having a drink and a good time can only be encouraged at international cricket matches, the abuse of the Australian team and the barrage of rubbish that made it’s way onto the field along with one idiotic streaker, suggests that New Zealand and more particularly Wellington is starting to blur having fun at the cricket with boozy brawling. One fails to grasp why people should ridicule the Australian’s and their stars such as Brett Lee so much when their cricketing skills are just on another level and provide amble entertainment in itself. Indeed towards the end of the game when New Zealand were in sight of an unlikely victory and both sides displayed supreme skills with both bat and ball, everybody became enthralled in the contest. Whether this was just because most of the yobs had passed out in the toilet facilities is uncertain.

 

New Zealand made a fantastic start with Mills getting rid of Gilchirst early on. Spectators were then treated to a solid partnership between the in form Ponting and the scratchy but effective Hayden. Also, the umpiring came under the spotlight again when Hayden appeared to be dismissed down the leg side but was adjudged not our by Billy Bowden. This added further fuel to the fire that the Australian’s have a psychological hold over umpires.

 

Australia then collapsed in the middle order and found runs harder to come by as some tight bowling by Nathan Astle and a brilliant, yet un-rewarded ten overs from Daniel Vettori who spun and flighted the ball as well as he ever has. The real star with the ball however was Scott Styris who claimed four wickets from ten economical overs including bowling Martyn with an off cutter which moved as much as a Warne googly. Tuffey, Mills and to a lesser extent Cairns still proved expensive at the death however, and one wonders how long Bracewell will put up with the substandard bowling of Tuffey and Mills. Symonds smote a quick fifty and Brad Hogg chipped in with a neat twenty five not out which took Australia through to 236, twenty more then New Zealand would have expected.

 

The New Zealand reply started poorly when Fleming was unluckily adjudged LBW by umpire Aleem Darr of Brett Lee’s bowling. The innings then stuted until McMillan and Marshall came together and produced the partnership of the night. Marshall was all class whilst McMillan bullied the bowling; most notably when he hit Symonds clear out of the stadium. He was undone by a fantastic stumping by Gilchrist who was standing up to McGrath, but still the Black Caps had hope. However McCullum, Marshall and Vettori were dismissed in quick succession and the Black Caps once again came to close yet were so far from beating the impressive Australian outfit. Lee once again bowled with fire and McGrath produced one of his all time best one-day performances. Many criticized the shot that Marshall got out to where he swept a McGrath delivery from outside off stump onto middle. However, one should look at the top order’s continual failure and blame New Zealand’s defeat on that and some substandard new-ball and death bowling.

 

Australia 236/7 in 50 overs (M.Hayden 71, R.Ponting 61, A.Symonds 53, S.Styris 10-1-40-4, D.Vettori 10-0-33-0) beat New Zealand 226 all out in 48.4 overs (N.Astle 65, H.Marshall 76, C.McMillan 37, B.Lee 9-1-41-3, G.McGrath 9.4-3-16-4) by 10 runs.

 

 

 

(Article: Copyright © 2005 Jim Ellingham)