Australia 1st innings: 279/9 in 85 overs (Green, Marsh 40, Khawaja 33, Smith 31; Henry 4/43, Kugelin 2/56, O’Rourke 2/59, Ravindra 1/19) * End of Day 11
Will Cameron Green take the place of Steven Smith?
Taking a place does not mean Smith is left out of the team because of Greene. On the contrary, for a long time in Tests, Smith was a symbol of trust at number four in Australia’s batting line-up, with today’s innings, Green may have paved that place for himself.
Smith is opening the Test series against West Indies after David Warner’s retirement. Since then, Green has been batting at four, replacing Smith. Although he did not do very well in the previous three innings in this position (14, 8 and 42), he did not miss the opportunity against New Zealand today. Despite dropping to four, he scored most of the runs with the lower order batsmen. Starc-Cummins-Lions scored his second century in Test career. Thanks to his unbeaten 103 runs, Australia passed the first day of the Wellington Test at 279 for 9 wickets.
New Zealand pacer Matt Henry was the best bowler of the day with 4 wickets for 43 runs. Green will try to take the innings beyond 300 tomorrow with number eleven batsman Josh Hazlewood (0*).
The breeze and verdant wickets of Basin Reserve have always had the pacers’ hands full. Today was no exception. Seeing the grass on the pitch, New Zealand must have started playing with 5 pacers. Usman Khawaja and Smith have to bat carefully from the beginning. However, the end was not saved. Just before the lunch break, Smith (31) had to return after Henry’s victim.
A rare incident occurred on the field after the lunch break. All the gates of the basin reserve were thrown open as the two teams went for lunch. New Zealand fans immediately entered the field. Some inspected the pitch closely, some took pictures and some started playing on the field. In this incident, Australia’s supporters are very angry. Many were worried, if the New Zealand fans had destroyed the pitch! Although they did not do that, the Australians did not show as much patience after the break as in the first session. Despite scoring 85 runs in this session, the visitors lost the wickets of Marnus Labuchen, Khawaja and Travis Head.
Michelle Marsh tried to get quick runs by partnering with Green for the fifth wicket. But Marsh got out soon after the tea break. Wicketkeeper-batsman Alex Carey could not last long. Greenish’s fight began soon after on the ‘Greenish wicket’ of Basin Reserve. Mitchell Starc-Pat Cummins, who came down to play a Test on New Zealand soil for the first time in an international career of more than a century, gave Greene good company. After Starc-Cummins in the late afternoon, when Nathan Lyon was also out, Green’s century was in doubt.
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But standing at the other end of Josh Hazlewood, who dropped to number eleven, was enough for Greene. In the 85th over of the innings, Green completed his century by hitting William O’Rourke for three boundaries. After that, the two umpires Michael Gough and Marais Erasmus announced the end of the day’s play. ICC Elite Panel umpire Marais Erasmus is retiring from international cricket after the Test.
