1st Test NZed vs Aus at Wellington

February 12-16, 2016
Start time 10.30 local

Henry Nicholls debuts at No. 4 in place of the unfit Ross Taylor, while Corey Anderson and Mark Craig are in for Mitchell Santner (foot injury) and Neil Wagner (left out).

New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Tom Latham, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Henry Nicholls, 5 Brendon McCullum (capt), 6 Corey Anderson, 7 BJ Watling (wk), 8 Doug Bracewell, 9 Mark Craig, 10 Tim Southee, 11 Trent Boult

Jackson Bird was chosen ahead of James Pattinson as the third seamer, while Peter Siddle resumes, having missed the Sydney Test against West Indies.

Australia 1 David Warner, 2 Joe Burns, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Steven Smith (capt), 5 Adam Voges, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Peter Nevill (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Josh Hazlewood, 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Jackson Bird

The Basin Reserve pitch was verdant green two days out from the match, and even if its colour may not denote as much seam movement as it appears, the ball will be kept in good condition by the surface and should swing.

Stats and trivia

Australia's last Test series in New Zealand in 2010 resulted in a 2-0 series win for the visitors, including the first Test at Basin Reserve
Steven Smith, then uncapped, is the only member of that touring squad to be in the team this time around
Martin Guptill, Brendon McCullum and Tim Southee are the remaining New Zealand players
Australia will attain the world No. 1 Test ranking with a series win

Looks like there was a lot of swing on offer and the Australian bowlers made good use of it. Josh Hazlewood is an absolute beast when the conditions suit him and he has shown his best here. Nice work by Lyon too. Also it was a top effort by Smith and Khawaja to rescue Australia from a precarious position of 5-2. Australia seem to be in the driver's seat this match.

I had to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me when I turned this on to see New Zealand 97/7. I think that certainly qualifies as a less than ideal start to the first day of a first Test. A session as poor as that is very, very hard to overcome.

Things could have been even worse as Craig was extremely fortunate not to have been bowled by Marsh when the ball flicked off his elbow and bounced against his leg stump only to have the bails jump out of the grooves and nestle softly back into place. Marsh is deceptively quick and does a great job of forcing the batsman onto the back foot.

The conditions eased up a little as the day went along and Australia took full advantage. The drop of Steve Smith, however, proved costly.

Is there anything Khawaja can't do? He is a monster in all three formats of the game and pulled off a very nice juggling catch at the boundary ropes to dismiss Boult. These types of circus catches are becoming so regulation that the skill and quick thinking are somewhat taken for granted.

Bracewell's delivery that was called a no-ball by umpire Richard Illingworth.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Ca_U9zeUAAANMi_.jpg:large

Umpire's almost never call no balls in Test matches any more, so for Illingworth to call a legitimate delivery a no-ball really rubs salt in the wounds.

The commentators at the time made a very good point, if there are concerns about a batsman being dismissed to a no-ball, the on-field umpire will throw it up to the 3rd umpire to take a look. If the on-field decision was given out, but replays show it to be a no-ball, the decision is overturned. So, in this case, shouldn't the no-ball call be overturned due to replays showing it to be a legitimate delivery?

147 - 3

Ussie 57*

Trail by 36 runs

Stumps Day 1

I love Joshy, been a fan of his ever since he came on the scene in U19 a few yrs ago he's got really good stuff. I envision amazing things from him and Starcy in coming years as a 1-2 punch

I swore his foot touched the boundary !

Froze frame and looked at it !

I haven't been watching the match so I didn't see this incident, but it's a mistake that gets made from time to time and really annoying. The use of technology is supposed to help correct errors, but it's being very poorly implemented.

Something else that keeps coming up is whether a team should lose a review when an lbw decision returns a verdict of umpire's call.

First overseas TON for Khawaja !

lead of 36

59.4
Craig to Khawaja, awful stuff. Bowling wise, Craig drops it short and Khawaja pounces all over it.

Everyone from the captain to the coach is up on their feet in the dressing room.

Fourth Test century, first one overseas !