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Knights set up a final clash with Cape Cobras as they crushed Lions by eight wickets in the semi-final at Wanderers

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Dec-2014
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Reeza Hendricks blitzed eight fours and a six in his unbeaten 74 off 53 deliveries•Getty ImagesKnights set up a final clash with Cape Cobras as they crushed Lions by eight wickets in the semi-final at Wanderers. Lions were kept down to 148 for 5 after choosing to bat, and Reeza Hendricks and Rilee Rossouw ensured the target was hunted down inside 18 overs.Hendricks and Rossouw’s second-wicket partnership was worth 115 in just 13 overs. Rossouw cracked 58 off 42 deliveries before falling at the doorstep of victory with five runs needed.Hendricks ended the match next ball after Rossouw’s exit with a six over the deep cover boundary off Lonwabo Tsotsobe. Hendricks also blitzed eight fours in his unbeaten 74 off 53.Kagiso Rabada conceded only 13 runs off three overs but the rest of the Lions attack could not contain Hendricks and Rossouw. In contrast, Andre Russell was the only Knights bowler to take some punishment as he went for 44 in his four overs.Lions were 64 for 2 in 8.1 overs but could not push on from there and lacked a strong finish. The highest score for Lions was Temba Bavuma’s 36 off 25 before he fell to Werner Coetsee.Malusi Siboto, who took 2 for 26, limited Chris Gayle to 15 off 14. Gayle began with a four and a six off Coetsee but hit a short ball from Siboto straight to short midwicket.The final will be played on Friday in Cape Town.

If not, perhaps, quite a perfect day for England, but a day when several pieces of their pre-Ashes jigsaw fell into place with a satisfying click as they proved they have a Plan B to their bowling attack

The Report by George Dobell26-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNick Compton’s failure was the only obvious downside of an otherwise quite perfect day for England•Getty ImagesIf not, perhaps, quite a perfect day for England, but a day when several pieces of their pre-Ashes jigsaw fell into place with a satisfying click.Most pertinently, this was a day when England proved their bowling attack had a Plan B. While it is routinely suggested that, when the ball does not swing, the England bowling attack looks toothless and one dimensional, here they showed that they have what it takes to damage opposition sides when there is no such help.With James Anderson and Stuart Broad – the destroyers of New Zealand at Lord’s – struggling to gain the same seam or swing movement, it was left to Graeme Swann and Steven Finn to find another way through the tourists’ batting. With Finn generating impressive pace and maintaining a hostile line and length and Swann demonstrating beguiling drift and sharp turn, England ended the day having inked in their first choice bowling attack for the Ashes.Swann cannot have the fondest memories of this ground. He had never previously taken a Test wicket here and, a year ago, was dropped for the second Test against South Africa. But in a spell of three wickets for one run in seven balls he not only dismantled a disappointingly fragile New Zealand middle-order but proved that he was back to his best after elbow surgery had forced him out of the Tests in New Zealand.As so often before, Swann struck in his first over. Gaining a surprising amount of turn, Swann beat Dean Brownlie’s somewhat loose stroke with one that turned through the gate to hit the top of off stump. Next over, having set-up Martin Guptill with some flat deliveries, Swann tossed one up, drew the batsman forward and again turned one through the gate to hit the top of off stump.Two deliveries later, Kane Williamson was out too. Moving across his stumps to negate Swann much in the way demonstrated by Hashim Amla in 2012, Williamson was beaten by turn and struck on the pad. While Marais Erasmus turned down the appeal, England reviewed and were rewarded.It was the first of two decisions overturned from England reviews in the session. While Tim Southee was originally given not out following a leg before appeal from Broad – the umpire quite reasonably unable to say whether ball had hit bat or pad first – reviews showed it had struck the pad first and was going on to hit leg stump.Moments later Swann had Doug Bracewell taken at silly point, prodding forward to one that turned and took bat and pad, before Broad had Brendon McCullum, clearly struggling with a bad back after being forced back into service as wicketkeeper, caught behind as he poked at one that seamed in a little.Swann ignoring weather forecast

Graeme Swann defended England’s decision not to enforce the follow-on after demolishing New Zealand for the second time in a week.

New Zealand survived only 43.4 overs at Headingley, to be dismissed for 174, only a few days after collapsing to 68 all out at Lord’s.

“It was a pretty unanimous decision,” Swann said. “There is a lot of cricket left in the game. The best way to win that game, we felt, was to put a fatigued New Zealand side back into the field. The bowlers weren’t too happy to go back out bowling and you can’t blame them. We want to build a formidable lead and let the pitch deteriorate and the footholds develop and give us the best chance of bowling them out in the second innings.

The prospect of rain on the final day did not unsettle Swann. “I always ignore British weather forecasts,” he said. “If you start looking at that you are missing the point. If it rains all of Tuesday, it rains all of Tuesday. I can’t remember ever sitting in a professional dressing room where a two-day forecast has been believed. It was supposed to be nagging it down all last week at Lord’s and we played.”

It left Swann with the best figures – 4 for 42 – by an England spinner in a Test in Leeds since John Emburey took 5 for 82 against Australia in 1985 and had New Zealand pondering over the wisdom of going into the game without a specialist spinner and with two left-arm seamers whose foot marks had provided rough for Swann to exploit.But if Swann takes the plaudits, it was Finn who made the initial breakthrough. After New Zealand’s openers had batted with fluency in reaching 55 without loss, Finn claimed the first three wickets in a sustained spell of hostile fast bowling.After prompting an error from Peter Fulton, caught and bowled off the leading edge as he tried to work a ball that bounced more than he expected into the leg side, Finn persuaded Hamish Rutherford to push at one angled across him which resulted in a sliced edge to gully and then forced Ross Taylor to play-on. It was due reward for a wonderfully sustained spell of bowling where Finn had cramped Taylor for room, struck him twice on the body and finally provoked the false stroke.New Zealand’s last pair of Neil Wagner and Trent Boult thrashed 52 runs in 27 balls – Wagner thrashed four fours in an over off Broad before Boult thumped Swann for a four and two successive sixes in the next over – but when Anderson returned to end the innings, New Zealand had conceded a first innings lead of 180.Perhaps surprisingly given the far from promising weather forecast, England decided not to enforce the follow-on – with day one washed out the follow-on target was 150-behind – and opted instead for another bat.Alastair Cook, cutting and driving with freedom, was at his most fluent against an attack lacking Trent Boult, who was absent with a side strain. The England captain raced to his half-century off 63 balls and dominated an opening stand of 72 in 20 overs.But the only obvious downside in the entire day for England was the failure of Nick Compton. He was clearly mindful of the vultures circling around him and laboured for 45 deliveries for his seven runs before falling to a bat-pad catch at short-leg. It is only three Tests since he registered back-to-back Test centuries, but it seems some have short memories.Jonathan Trott found life little easier. Struggling to deal with the rough outside his off stump and some tight seam bowling, he managed only 11 off 69 deliveries, and, though he had helped Cook stretch the lead to 296 by stumps, England hardly forced home their advantage in the final 90 minutes. Still, it is England’s policy – rightly or wrongly – to not allow the possibility of weather disruption to influence their game plan and, with nearly 200 overs left in the game, they remain in an overwhelmingly dominant position.

Keith Barker continued his habit of performing well against Durham when he took 4 for 41 runs to dismiss the hosts for 267 on the first day at Chester-le-Street.

12-Jun-2013
ScorecardKeith Barker’s form against Durham continued•PA PhotosKeith Barker continued his habit of performing well against Durham when he took 4 for 41 runs to dismiss the hosts for 267 on the first day at Chester-le-Street.Warwickshire, who lost the toss, had seven overs to bat and reached 31 for 1 to end the day the happier of the two sides as they seek only their second win of the season. The first came by 318 runs at home to Durham.Barker struck with the second ball of the day when Mark Stoneman pushed forward and edged to Tim Ambrose. He snared the other opener, Keaton Jennings, shortly after lunch when Jennings spoilt the hard work which had taken him to 33 by hooking to long leg.Four of the top five reached 30, but only Ben Stokes progressed to a half-century, which he completed off 92 balls by pulling Jeetan Patel for six. But Patel had his revenge when he persuaded Stokes to play on for 61, giving him his third wicket after he had sparked Durham’s slide from 163 for 3. Patel finished with 3 for 68 and should have had a fourth wicket as he saw Mark Wood dropped at slip on nought by Rikki Clarke.Clarke also took three wickets and did more bowling than he might have expected as Boyd Rankin missed the final session through illness.Rankin, coming on second change in the morning, extracted steep bounce and was unlucky not to take a wicket with both Jennings and Will Smith edging him just wide of gully. Smith made 45 but after putting on 65 with Stokes he pushed forward and edged Patel to slip. Paul Collingwood and Phil Mustard then fell in successive overs.Collingwood was caught off bat and pad at silly mid-off for 1 and Mustard went for a duck when he played defensively forward and edged Clarke low to first slip.Wood and Graham Onions put on 43 for the ninth wicket before Barker returned with the new ball and took the last two wickets with successive deliveries. He swung one through Wood’s defences to bowl him for 22, then Chris Rushworth drove wide of off-stump and edged to Ambrose.The ease with which Onions made an unbeaten 22 suggested Durham’s total was below par and this seemed to be confirmed when Varun Chopra pulled him for six on his way to 24 not out. His partner, Ian Westwood, fell for 5 in the final over when he miscued a pull off Onions to mid-on.

Angelo Mathews refused to put Sri Lanka’s first-ever loss to Bangladesh on home soil down to conditions, and blamed his side’s bowling instead

Andrew Fidel Fernando29-Mar-2013Angelo Mathews refused to put Sri Lanka’s first-ever loss to Bangladesh on home soil down to conditions, and blamed his side’s bowling instead. Bangladesh got off to a rapid start in their response to Sri Lanka’s 302, before rain forced an almost three-hour delay in play.Sri Lanka contended with a wet ball for the remainder of the curtailed match, but Mathews said his side’s bowling had been a concern throughout the series, and they should have walked away with a series win. Only Sachithra Senanayake and Lasith Malinga maintained an economy rate of less than six runs an over, as Bangladesh chased 183 in 26 overs to win by three wickets under the Duckworth-Lewis method.”I don’t think we can blame the conditions. We didn’t bowl well and that’s why we lost. It was very disappointing. I feel we had the runs on the board, but we just didn’t bowl well. Our bowling was the turning point. We didn’t execute our plans and we were wayward from the start.”Duckworth Lewis is always complicated. We had our chances still, because they had to get 102 off 13 overs and the bowling attack that we’ve got is brilliant. Unfortunately, we just couldn’t pull it off.”Sri Lanka had begun the match promisingly, with Kusal Perera and Tillakaratne Dilshan providing their second brisk 100-run partnership in the series. Dilshan hit 125 from 128 balls, and had support from Kumar Sangakkara as well, who made a busy 48. Sri Lanka lost their way from 203 for 1 in the 36th over, when the middle order collapsed, but Mathews said the batting had not worried him.”Tillakaratne Dilshan and Kusal Janith gave us the ideal start. The midde-order batsmen we were a little too hasty. But still, I think 302 in a 50-over game is a lot of runs. The batting was good, but we again showed a weakness with the ball. Our batting has been good throughout this tour. I think both in the first ODI and in the third ODI, we have not bowled well at all.”Bangladesh had the advantage of playing out all ten of their mandatory Powerplay overs despite the shortened chase, but Mathews said a curtailed match did not necessarily swing the game in Bangladesh’s favour.”It would have been different if they were chasing 303 and we were playing a 50-over game, but the credit should also go to the Bangladeshis for the way they played. They batted extremely well. It could have gone both ways. Maybe with the pressure of a 50-over match, it could have gone our way, but we could still have won the 27-over match. We didn’t play well and we accept that.”Bangladesh required more than seven runs an over for much of their chase, and they kept in touch with the asking rate with regular boundaries, before closing in on the target quickly with a final flourish. Sri Lanka fielded well, despite the wet ball and slippery surface, but it was the bowling where they were not poised, Mathews said.”It was a nervous game because it went down to the wire and the pressure was on. They were feeling it and we were also feeling it. We were a little a little bit rattled with the ball. Those 13 overs were played under high pressure, and Bangladesh outplayed us there, when we were troubled a little bit.”Ultimately they held it to pull it off and get across the line. They’ve played some really good cricket and we were outplayed today.”

The 2014 Asia Cup will be held in Bangladesh after original hosts India cited a tight international schedule as the main reason for being unable to organise the tournament

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Apr-2013The 2014 Asia Cup will be held in Bangladesh after India, who had originally agreed to play hosts, cited a packed international schedule as the main reason for being unable to organise the tournament. The likely dates for the tournament will be February 24 to March 8. The decision was taken at the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) board meeting on April 8 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where India informed the other ACC members that they were focused instead on finalising the itinerary for the New Zealand tour, scheduled to be held in February-March next year.It is understood that Bangladesh volunteered to host the Asia Cup and even decided to postpone the scheduled tri-series involving Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which was to be held around the same period. According to an official privy to the minutes of the meeting, the dates could be changed again considering India have been facing “hiccups” in negotiating dates with Cricket New Zealand.The BCCI has been trying to convince New Zealand Cricket to trim their schedule of the New Zealand tour to two Tests, two ODIs and two T20Is to enable India to participate in the Asia Cup. The ICC’s Future Tours Programme (FTP) has India scheduled to play three Tests, five ODIs and a single Twenty20 international.Hosting the Asia Cup does throw Bangladesh’s FTP schedules into disarray. According to the FTP, Bangladesh are set to host Sri Lanka for two Tests and three ODIs from the second week of February. A tri-nation series is also scheduled involving Sri Lanka and Pakistan immediately after, and just before the World Twenty20s begin on March 16.

Two wickets apiece from left-arm spinners Brad Hogg and Ashton Agar stifled the Adelaide Strikers and handed them their first loss of the tournament by defending 133 at the Adelaide Oval to give the Perth Scorchers an 18-run win

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Jan-2015
Sorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAdam Voges’ unbeaten 54 propped Scorchers’ innings•Getty ImagesTwo wickets apiece from left-arm spinners Brad Hogg (2-11) and Ashton Agar (2-24) stifled the Adelaide Strikers, who suffered their first loss of this season as the Perth Scorchers defended a total of 133 to win by 18 runs. The Scorchers’ win was set up first by an unbeaten fifty from Adam Voges, and later by four bowlers who took two wickets each to move them to second in the points table.The Scorchers’ top three batsmen didn’t get great starts after they were put in to bat, scoring a total of 41 runs before Voges, at No. 4, led the charge. After Adam Zampa disturbed the top order, Shaun Tait and Ben Laughlin knocked the stumps to reduce the Scorchers to 5 for 75 in the 13th over. However, Voges resisted and counterattacked, and combined with Ashton Turner and Yasir Arafat to charge them to 6 for 133, striking six fours in his 36-ball 54.The Strikers started with a strong opening stand of 38 in 5.2 overs, before the openers fell within 10 runs. They lost their third wicket without much progress and were 3 for 65 in the 11th over, and never recovered from there. Hogg struck in his third over with the wicket of Travis Head, and from thereon the chinaman bowler and Arafat ran through the middle and lower order, aided by a run-out.Hogg came back to have Ryan ten Doeschate caught at long-off in his next over for 4 and Agar bowled Johan Botha with a quicker delivery to leave them reeling at 92 for 7. The win was sealed after Arafat dismissed Zampa and Kane Richardson in successive overs as the Strikers lost their last six wickets for 41 runs. Andrew Tye was the fourth bowler to pick two wickets. The loss does not affect the Strikers’ position in the table as they still sit at the top and have a two-point lead over the Scorchers and Sydney Sixers.

Matthew Hayden’s retirement from professional cricket after one season with the Brisbane Heat in the BBL was no surprise, for he had flagged the strong possibility himself last summer

Daniel Brettig20-Sep-2012Matthew Hayden’s retirement from professional cricket after one season with the Brisbane Heat in the BBL was no surprise, for he had flagged the strong possibility himself last summer.”I don’t think I’ll play again next year…this will be it for me,” Hayden had said in December. “There’s just so much happening in my life, you can never wind back the clock…I’m a father of three firstly and I have a lot of work to do off the field.”After a holiday at the end of the season, 40-year-old Hayden wrestled with the decision a little more, but it was always likely that his interest in the Heat would move from that of a player to a board member and potential financial stakeholder after the BBL made a successful start in the 2011-12 season.Hayden’s business, The Hayden Way, had flagged interest in becoming a partner in ownership of the Heat last year, before Cricket Australia froze its private ownership plans. Hayden is now set to remain closely linked to the Heat via spot on the team’s board, with the possibility of taking up a stake in the team should CA again open the doors to private investors.”This marks the closing of the book in terms of playing, it wasn’t a very easy decision I must admit,” Hayden said in Brisbane. “[The Heat coach] Darren Lehmann created a really fun environment to go out and play cricket. It is hard as an athlete to leave your comfort zones and leave something you love as much as I did.”But every dog has their day and certainly I perhaps wasn’t at my best last season, but I definitely was the best I could be, and that was something I was proud of for 20 years.”Hayden had played for IPL franchise Chennai Super Kings in the year following his international retirement, the 2010 Champions League being his last stint with them. He then came out of retirement to play for the Brisbane Heat in last year’s inaugural tournament, giving up his responsibilities as a board member of Cricket Australia and Queensland Cricket in order to play again.While reiterating his support for T20 competitions, Hayden also stated his distaste for much of the international schedule, citing the ICC Champions Trophy as an example of the flotsam and jetsam floating through an increasingly crowded calendar. He also hinted at his support for a World Test Championship, a concept that has been placed on hold until at least 2017 by the game’s governors.”Forever more now the landscape is challenged by the quantity of cricket,” Hayden said. “You just as a fan follow different tournaments around the world with great difficulty. There’s a consistent lack of focus and direction on some of the major tournaments. There’s the World Cup naturally…2015 is going to be a significant year for Australian cricket and New Zealand cricket, but there’s other tournaments like the Champions Trophy for example that hold little or no relevance in the context of cricket and the landscape.”It is hard to make those decisions, and there’s lots of angles from which administrators look at those decisions, no more so than commercial aspects of the game. For the fan there’s definitely too much cricket, for the player there’s definitely not enough relevance to the forms of the game you play. And some of the longer versions of the game as well need some refining and some parameters put around them to make every game as important genuinely as the last one you played.”If we do get that mix right…we’ve now got our little brother in T20 cricket who is now really rising up and establishing a connection with fans, and ultimately that’s what the game’s about.”One area Hayden was more positive about was the effect of club T20 competitions on the options open to professional cricketers. Kevin Pietersen’s run-ins with the ECB and his England team-mates over the IPL have been a very public example of this, but Hayden said the emergence of greater choice was constructive.”Players haven’t ever had the opportunity to be challenged in terms of who actually contracts them,” he said. “Now you do have the opportunity to play for the Brisbane Heat, for the Chennai Super Kings, for your country or in Kevin’s case his previous country as well. There’s so much range and it’s a good thing for the athlete, because it hones their skill. Someone like Ricky Ponting will say frankly ‘I’m relatively uninterested in T20 cricket, but Test cricket is where I really want to be’. Michael Clarke’s had a similar view. I think that’s great because it does allow athletes a broader range of opportunity.”

Matthew Wade’s place in the Australian batting order against Pakistan may hinge on the outcome of the coin toss as concerns mount over his workload in the Sharjah heat

Daniel Brettig27-Aug-2012Matthew Wade’s place in the Australian batting order against Pakistan may hinge on the outcome of the coin toss, as concerns mount over his ability to play as an opener after keeping wicket for 50 overs in the enervating heat of Sharjah.Australia’s acting coach – and former Test wicketkeeper – Steve Rixon has flagged the possibility of Wade being sent down the order should Australia field first against Pakistan in the opening match of the series, even suggesting that Michael Hussey may be promoted to open the batting as he does for Chennai, Rixon’s IPL team.In the defeat of Afghanistan, Wade batted at the top of the order and contributed a battling 75 before snaffling three catches. He was noticeably drained by the end, but would be stretched even further with only the dinner break between keeping wicket and opening the batting in a chase.”Matthew Wade is probably the biggest concern,” Rixon said in Sharjah. “He has a dual role to play. If he has to field first, and then go out and do the batting, he’s going to look a lot more tired doing it that way than the way he did it last night. He’s a guy we will have to manage well and his position in the batting may have a bearing on that.”Rixon made it clear he would welcome the chance to send Hussey up the order, though he demonstrated his value in the middle order with a rapid-fire 49 from 37 balls to ensure Australia reached a strong total against Afghanistan. The captain Michael Clarke, just promoted to No. 3, and the floating George Bailey are other options to open the batting.”Probably a really positive option would be Mike Hussey,” Rixon said, “who has opened with the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League.”Ahead of Australia’s first meeting with Pakistan since the 2011 World Cup, Rixon suggested that Australia needed to play to the pace strength demonstrated against Afghanistan, though it is known that Pakistan will stack their side with up to four slow bowlers of quality.”We’ve learnt a lot by actually playing a lot of our guys over the years in the Indian Premier League and other subcontinent competitions where we’ve actually seen how quicks bowling into the wicket with pace can be hard work,” Rixon said. “To me, if that’s our trump card, by all means we’ll be using it accordingly. You don’t just play spinners for the sake of it.”You’ve got to be getting people who are going to play a role in your side. If that means three or four quicks, or three quicks and say [absent allrounder] Shane Watson to come into your bowling attack, by all means, that will be our attack. It’s something we took on board and we’ll probably be using it as one of our strengths.”Nonetheless, Clarke was keen to emphasise the importance of handling and using spin bowling as critical to the outcome of the series. Xavier Doherty, Glenn Maxwell and Steven Smith may be used primarily in support of Mitchell Starc, James Pattinson and Mitchell Johnson, but Clarke did not wish to underplay their importance to a winning combination.”Whoever bowls spin the best and whoever plays spin the best will win the series,” Clarke said. “Whether it is attacking or defending, the way our spinners bowl is going to be crucial to us having success. It doesn’t mean they take all the wickets, as we’ve seen.”The Australian way is, for a long time, fast bowlers have had success all around the world. I see this series being no different, but I do believe our spinners are going to play a huge part in us taking 10 wickets in every game.”As for the issue of humidity, Clarke said extra attention had to be paid in the form of sweatbands, and towels. “Probably the most important thing for us is when bowling second, realise how much you’re sweating,” Clarke said. “So we’ll combat that with guys wearing sweatbands, make sure there’s towels, to be able to hang onto the ball.”

The future of the West Indies Test team will be mapped out early next year with the coach Ottis Gibson and the new director of cricket Richard Pybus set to meet to discuss how to respond to the recent slump in results

Andrew McGlashan 23-Dec-2013The future of the West Indies Test team will be mapped out early next year with the coach Ottis Gibson and the new director of cricket Richard Pybus set to meet to discuss how to respond to the recent slump in results.Four of West Indies’ last five Tests have been heavy defeats and without rain in Dunedin it would have been five losses on in a row, undoing the strides made over the previous year where the side had strung together six straight Test victories.Their next Test assignment is not until May when they host New Zealand in a return series, but although Gibson wants to use the gap to make a considered judgement on his team, it seems inconceivable that significant changes won’t take place. Pybus only joined the WICB in late October, shortly before West Indies went to India, so there has been limited opportunity for him to work with Gibson.”We’ve had some discussions already about where we are and my thoughts on what we need to do to move forward,” Gibson said. “There’s a meeting pencilled in for us when we get back, including the selectors, to try and plot the way forward. We have five months before the next Test series which gives us some time.”West Indies were hampered in New Zealand by the absence of Kemar Roach, due to a shoulder injury, and Chris Gayle, but the discussions between Gibson and Pybus will also need to focus on the status of players such as Ravi Rampaul and Fidel Edwards, who have doubts over their viability for Test cricket, and whether to recall other experienced figures such as Ramnaresh Sarwan and Dwayne Bravo.In the aftermath of the 2-0 loss against New Zealand, which was sealed by a collapse for 103 in the second innings in Hamilton where all 10 wickets fell in a session, Darren Sammy spoke about careers being on the line but Gibson said there will be no hasty decisions.”When you’ve just lost a series, and the way we’ve lost, emotions run high and people start talking about careers being on the line and it’s a bit premature,” he said. “We can get home, let the dust settle and assess where we are. We can come up with a plan, but also decide who the right personnel are.”He did, though, concede that patience was wearing thin especially when it came to the batting performances. “Batting collapses happen. In our team they happen too often. It’s a sickening feeling when it happens to your team.”In the short term Gibson has the limited-overs leg of the New Zealand tour to focus on, which brings with it a change of captain – Dwayne Bravo replaces Sammy for the ODIs, but not the T20s – and Gibson hopes for a fresh approach.”Dwayne brings his own energies,” he said. “Sometimes what is going on in the Tests can drain the players, it can have a drain on the captain as well. Having a new figure head in the one-dayers, and some new players, means we aren’t taking too much baggage into the series.”There is also the chance that Gayle will be available for the two Twenty20s that round off the tour next month. Gayle picked up a hamstring injury during the one-day series in India and was ruled to have not recovered in time for the 50-overs segment of this trip. He is currently in Sydney, believed to be as part of his rehabilitation programme, and Gibson said the main target for him was the World Twenty20 defence in Bangladesh.”We’re in communication with him and the people he’s working with in Australia,” Gibson said. “He’s still injured so would be an unnecessary risk to fast track him with what lies ahead. The World T20 is coming up – a format where he is king. He should be available for the two T20s.”

New Zealand’s batsmen are rightly cursing their shot-selection after giving up the first five wickets of the innings with a flurry of poor choices

Daniel Brettig at the Gabba01-Dec-2011New Zealand’s batsmen are rightly cursing their shot selection after giving up the first five wickets of the innings with a flurry of poor choices. However, batsman Brendon McCullum believes the visitors are on course to reach a total that will stretch Australia’s youthful top order.McCullum creamed three boundaries from the debutant James Pattinson in the first over of the series, but later cut unwisely to point soon after drinks to expose the middle order to swing and spin. He was frank about the batsmen’s failings, but retained hope of a fruitful Test match given the Gabba’s potential for rushes of wickets.”There are some very disappointed batsmen, myself included, all of us are pretty upset to pass up an opportunity to score some big runs on a challenging pitch against a very good team,” McCullum said. “When you pass up those opportunities it always disappoints you. But can’t stress enough it wasn’t so much the deliveries themselves but more-so the build-up of pressure.”When you see a ball that’s not one of the better ones you try to dominate and that’s where we came unstuck a little bit. Of more importance is we lost wickets before drinks, before lunch then straight after lunch. We pride ourselves on playing hard cricket during those times and today we let ourselves down before and after breaks.”That first hour at the Gabba is always going to be the most challenging, and to get through that, to get to drinks and start after drinks and get out in the fashion I did, just before the spinner came on and I thought that would’ve been an opportunity to put pressure on with one wicket down. The timing of when I got out after putting in that hard work was hugely disappointing.”Grateful to Dean Brownlie and Daniel Vettori for a sturdy sixth wicket stand, McCullum pointed to David Warner, Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja, Australia’s developmental top three, as an opportunity for early wickets if a total of 280 or more can be raised on day two.”We still think we’re not far away from putting up a competitive total, and if we can eke out a good two hours tomorrow morning then we put ourselves in a position where we’re relatively comfortable with where we’re at and have something to bowl at,” McCullum said. “Hopefully we can expose some inexperience in the Australian top order as well, and try to utilise the scoreboard pressure we might create by batting first.”Three hundred is competitive, 280’s competitive, it’s not like every other cricket ground, it is one of those things where if we do hit the right areas, any team can easily have a session where you run through six or seven wickets if you get it right, so we’ve just got to keep making sure we put ourselves in the strongest position we can.”Though he did not claim McCullum’s wicket with a particularly searching delivery, Mitchell Starc had made the opener uncomfortable with earlier offerings, singeing his helmet with one bouncer and cramping his hands with swing and seam into the body.”I thought I was a bit stiff not to get four leg-byes actually,” McCullum said of the bouncer. “I thought he bowled pretty well. In terms of the length he bowled, he was probably the most challenging out of the lot of them. He’s left-arm as well, being able to use his angle across you but also [challenging] when he came around the wicket coming from a wider angle as well. He bowled really smart today and got the rewards for it.”New Zealand have only played three other Test matches in 2011, but McCullum denied that had much to do with the batsmen’s questionable shot choices. Instead he considered the occasion, against Australia in the first Test of their summer, had affected the visitors.”We always want to play more Test cricket, but our dismissals today weren’t because of our lack of Test cricket,” he said. “It was just that we didn’t execute the options we took, and pressure sometimes does that, and also the spectacle of playing Australia can sometimes bring that out in you as well. We’re slightly behind the eight-ball but we’re going okay.”