While the pitch has unquestionably flattened out to the point of being an excellent one for batting, the morning session on day 1 was a nightmare to bat on. The ball was seaming all over the show on a very green-top. Australia made great work of those conditions before the pitch eased up. This pitch is actually very similar to the one in Wellington, where Australia once again made great use of the seaming conditions on the first day to set up a commanding position.
It is a shame that Burns was dismissed before the close of play, otherwise, according to my research, we would have had the first ever instance in Test history of the first 5 players in a team all averaging 50+. The Australian team that
played Zimbabwe in 2003
is the only team (to my knowledge) that featured 5 players with an average of 50+, however, Langer, the opening batsman, had an average of 44 at the time. Hayden, Ponting, Martyn, Steve Waugh, Lehmann and Gilchrist were the 5 with 50+ averages in that match.
