DC you alluded  to the deck and its state. Evidently those cracks are widening. Not good news if you are trying to save a game of cricket. A ball hits one of those and it can deviate or bounce low or steep. Cummins and Starc are quick enuff to cause problems but give them the added uncertainty of the pitch and they become twice as dangerous. Starc needs to continue his good form. Cummins is down on his usual wicket taking. Not sure what is up with him. But his best can be game winning. Does Wade even have a first class wicket DC. Will we miss the metronomic accuracy of Hazlewood? I doubt it as the Kiwis are too far behind in the game.

All fair enough points jj (except for Wade keeping). It can be a difficult mix with Captains. For instance Ponting was an excellent leader, but not a great tactical Captain. While Clark was a good tactician, but a not great leader. Paine seems in between. Not a standout at either, but under the circumstances he has been exactly what was necessary. Guided the team through a rough period and deserves praise for that.

Wade should be kept far away from a pair of keepers gloves lol. He simply isn't up to required standards. He's going ok as a batsmen though.

Smith might well be a far better Captain after his experience. Would be fair enough to give him a go when Paine retires.

Pattinson seems the most likely to replace Hazlewood. Head has already been dropped in England, so with this injury to Hazlewood, the next two matches on generally bowler unfriendly wickets along with CA's preference for a seam up all rounder in the batting line up anyway, he must be looking shaky. What might save him is the problem in finding an all rounder. Stoinis is about all there is at the moment.

461 runs appears to be  too many for the Kiwis to chase on this pitch. 

Yeah - its over with no rain. The pitch has cracked up. There wont be a Greatbatch repeat here.

Nevermind, some good performances to see, especially from the Africans. Wagner proven himself a world class act again. Labuschange looks like the next big thing.

I dont blame the Kiwi boys for the batting collapse under lights after 2 days in 47 degrees. That's cricket. Everyone would have batted at that toss. But Raval has to go after this series once Young is fit and back.

Another very obvious replacement for captain is Wade - if he can establish himself as a specialist batter. 

Wade is very experienced as Victorian and Tassie Captain. 

He has also played quite quite a lot of international cricket too. 

Is Cummins bowling worse, or, has he bowled well without luck? 

He just bowled one 145kph thunderbolt. 

Good field placing from Paine or Starc as Lyon catches Dirval from a dolly catch at point off Starc. 

He was just sledged by Starc it would be his last Test- I don’t like that. 

Kane Williamson shows his class with 10 off his first 3 balls! 

He is a very good batsmen, probably having no  technical flaws. 

Kane W who is now batting, must surely have to make a huge score for the Kiwis to have any chance - although Taylor averages high 40s and Latham and Nicholls have high world rankings
as batters. 

Williamson gone! Caught Wade at silly mid on, off a turning, bouncing Lyon first delivery. 

Kiwis in strife, with GOAT on a hat trick! 

Paine should have  a silly mid off too off a potent GOAT. 

Lyon nearly had 2 wickets in his first over. 

Poor Kiwis! 

Gday Paddles
jj- that was going to be my next question.
Have you got anyone in the wings to replace Raval for the MCG test?
Definitely a weak point in the Kiwis's line up.

Young would have debut'd in Chch this year, but there was a Chch shooting. He then went to Aus with the NZ team and scored two centuries and a 50 in the wc warmups. But in the first game, he wrecked his shoulder and could not throw. He could still bat, obviously. So he missed the world cup. We all hoped he would be fit for this tour, but he isn't. He narrowly missed out to Nicholls in a shootout NZA game in 2015/16. He was red hot last season.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/547749.html


Devon Conway is the best batsman hands-down in NZ domestic for years, but he is a Saffir import and not eligible until September.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/southafrica/content/player/379140.html

But he is the next big thing in NZ colours. Already has a tripple this season.

For mine, that leave Glen Philips - who is just a kid. But for mine - I would SOS call him over there.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/823509.html

He has been a leading run scorer in two CPL in a row. And is also making runs in all formats here - 3 years in a row. He is a keeper and a more than useful off spinner as well. Just a freak talent. Reeled off a century for NZA vs England against Archer.

There is also Rachin Ravindra. But he only just turned 20. And is not ready. At all.

http://www.espncricinfo.com/newzealand/content/player/959767.html

Only a matter of time now Baggy Greens. 

A potent, crumbling deck assisting GOAT.

Yeah, fair points. Could be a good Captain if he becomes a first pick player.

The gulf between these two attacks has been large in this match. Neither at full strength, but the Aussies so much better (as you might expect in the conditions). Far more potent quicks and a far better spinner. Perhaps a more dour wicket at the MCG might help the kiwis.

Comparatively there didn't seem to be a lot of dismissals behind the wicket (slips, gully, keeper etc.) for the kiwis on this pitch. About half of the Aussie wickets were caught behind or in slips (and had a couple of caught behinds they missed by not challenging). Should at least be a common mode of dismissal. If not, your'e either bowling poor line/length or maybe the quicks lack pace. It was probably a bit of both for the kiwis.

The slow half trackers might please the crowd, might be worth a punt on an up and down pitch, relying on it too much is unlikely to get you over the line regularly though. The spinner was also ordinary.

Well I was lucky enough to have a full day's live play on day 1, 2 sessions yesterday and today's final session to see us take the 5 wickets and seal the win. Wasn't planning on going today, but the lure of Starc, Cummins and Lyons making mincemeat of the kiwi tail was just too much. The pitch was quite nasty alright and credit to our bowlers for making the most of it. I think NZ did quite a good job with what they had, effective with the short stuff at least. Santner disappointing. Very little swing was seen under lights, it was all about pace and bounce. I still think we would have been better off at the WACA, WA's true home of cricket - the target for the new stadium was 20,000 per day and we were under that. It makes sense for BBL to be at the stadium, where 'whack it' draws the bigger crowds. I wonder what kind of pitch Melbourne can produce after the shield fiasco.

Lyon even. Just the one. It's been a long day! :D

Interesting points, FS.

I thought the Kiwi attack was good. The difficulty they had was scoreboard pressure, and batting second. The way they fought back late in the Aussie second innings was admirable.

We missed Haze, but possibly not as much as they missed the injured Ferguson. It might have been pure luck, but I thought Santer beat the bat a lot - mainly our right handers, with no reward.

Also, De Grandhomme gives the Kiwis the medium pace all rounder we desperately need to reduce our bowlers'  workload, particularly if anyone is injured. For the next game , we could play Neser at 7 and drop Head.

Cummins, Starc and Patto are all very good batters for tailenders. This new WA anew stadium is better than the WACA, because it encourages spinners.

It was a great Test match from an Aussie perspective.

Thanks for your reports from the ground, TB.

It has been terrific having a Kiwi posting here in this game, Paddles.

Thanks for your insights, even though you've  been pretty harsh on  your team.

I thought Raval's leg spin was handy.

To answer my own question, I think it was the latter of the first sentence.

Cummins makes batters play a lot of balls at high speed, often with a good seam position.

I think GOAT got 6 wickets for the game?

We didn't see you post here much for this Test, Baggers.

The fight the kiwi bowlers showed was a credit to them for sure, and Southee bowled very well at times. I think during the first innings Labuschagne-Smith partnership was where they really lost the match with some poor bowling. Wagner in particular released any pressure with his short stuff. They didn't score freely off it, but were untroubled and gradually accumulated a match defining partnership. The biggest problem they might have had was treating it with contempt. Smith scored at a snails pace and fell to a poor and undisciplined shot in the end (but even then he would have been the second highest scorer in either innings for the kiwis) but he stayed with Marnus.

They wouldn't be the first touring team to think bowling short is a good idea. But unless you have a Windies pace quartet it rarely works. It takes bowled and lbw straight out of the equation and also makes it less likely for catches to slips and keeper. It basically relies on hope that the batsman will take it on and play a poor shot. At that pace it is a negative tactic.

The second innings was a bit irrelevant, the Aussies were playing to time the declaration more than anything. From what I gather from Cummins comments, they would have liked to declare about a session later than they did.

Starc and Cummins showed how to worry lower order batsmen with a good mixture of short stuff. Interestingly Starc, Cummins and Lyon are the three leading test wicket takers this year. 

I don't get all the talk of Raval being a problem after one match. He wouldn't be the first opener to fail and he is unlikely to have played in such conditions against such bowling. A far bigger problem was Santner. Both Aussie part time spinners looked more threatening (Raval probably bowled better) and he was milked for plenty. It might have been a one off poor match for him, will wait and see, but he looked ordinary.

Having Boult back will be good for them. As far as batting changes, the kiwis would be better to rethink tactics and to do something with their spinner. 

OK so according to the new WACA development, it will only hold 10,000 permanent with temporary increase to 15,000. So the talk is it could possibly get next Summer's Afghanistan's test if Perth stadium doesn't get one against India.

Raval has to go.

After a great debut season, where he made runs vs Safrica and Pakistan, these are his numbers since:

England in New Zealand Test Series, 2017/18
	2	3	0	25	17	8.33	98	25.51	0	0	0	2	0	22 Mar 2018		New Zealand
Pakistan v New Zealand Test Series (in United Arab Emirates), 2018/19
	3	6	0	131	46	21.83	349	37.53	0	0	1	13	0	16 Nov 2018		New Zealand
Sri Lanka in New Zealand Test Series, 2018/19
	2	3	0	123	74	41.00	256	48.04	0	1	0	14	0	15 Dec 2018		New Zealand
Bangladesh in New Zealand Test Series, 2018/19
	2	2	0	135	132	67.50	244	55.32	1	0	0	19	1	28 Feb 2019		New Zealand
ICC World Test Championship, 2019-2021
	3	5	0	39	33	7.80	140	27.85	0	0	1	3	0	14 Aug 2019		drawn
New Zealand in Sri Lanka Test Series, 2019
	2	3	0	37	33	12.33	112	33.03	0	0	1	3	0	14 Aug 2019		drawn
England in New Zealand Test Series, 2019/20
	2	3	0	24	19	8.00	91	26.37	0	0	1	3	0	21 Nov 2019		New Zealand
Trans-Tasman Trophy [New Zealand in Australia], 2019/20
	1	2	0	2	1	1.00	28	7.14	0	0	0	0	0	12 Dec 2019		-

He wouldn't be in the team if Young was fit. And he certainly wont be in the squad when Conway is eligible. A century against Bangladesh - his only test century - should not be saving him.

Seems everytime I log in to post I am here alone DC. So I go elsewhere for company.

There was a fair bit of traffic for this Test.

Having said this, compared to the  Ashes in England,  the numbers of posters posting has decreased markedly.