Sports After Dark

Shortly the first leg of the double header from Perth gets under way between New Zealand and Australia. Both teams are coming off convincing defeats of England but New Zealand’s top order batting woes were still evident in their last outing.

Against England, the New Zealanders lost their first 5 wickets for only 67 runs. Nathan Astle’s retirement and the recall of Lou Vincent will do little to bolster a batting line up that has struggled all summer with no batsman showing any constancy and some being woefully out of form. The Kiwi’s bowling has been good this summer with Shane Bond back to his best and Mark Gillespie as the fast bowling find of the season.

Australia have continued to roll over anyone in their way dominating with both bat and ball throughout the Commonwealth Bank Series. Neither England nor New Zealand have really tested the Australians and it is a trend that looks to continue for the rest of the series.

The Waca pitch is traditionally a very hard and bouncy pitch offering help to the fast bowlers. The Australian fast bowling stocks are extremely deep with Brett Lee, Glenn McGrath and Nathan Bracken all bowling well, while New Zealand has Shane Bond as their only real world class bowler. However, the Perth pitch can offer batsmen who are patient the chance to score a lot of runs as the bounce and pace of the wicket are consistent, despite being fast.

It looks like Australia have won the toss and elected to bat first. It’s about time Ponting won a toss! Very hot and humid in Perth today with the temperature reaching over 40. Will be hard work for the New Zealanders in the field.

Australia have gone with four fast bowlers, while New Zealand are playing two spinners. New Zealand are also without the services of Shane Bond today as the team are concerned about his back standing up to two games in three days. It appears the Kiwis are targetting the game against England on Tuesday.

Teams

New Zealand

1. Lou Vincent
2. Stephen Fleming
3. Peter Fulton
4. Ross Taylor
5. Craig McMillan
6. Jacob Oram
7. Kyle Mills
8. Brendan McCullum
9. Daniel Vettori
10. Mark Gillespie
11. Jeetan Patel

Australia

1. Adam Gilchrist
2. Matthew Hayden
3. Ricky Ponting
4. Michael Clark
5. Andrew Symonds
6. Michael Hussey
7. Cameron White
8. Nathan Bracken
9. Brett Lee
10. Mitchell Johnson
11. Glenn McGrath

Similar Posts:

• Australia vs New Zealand 1 Pre-Game
• New Zealand vs England 4 Preview
• Australia vs New Zealand 1 Innings Break
• Australia vs England 2 Pre-Game
• Australia vs New Zealand 2 Pre-Game

The Australia vs New Zealand 3 Pre-Game by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.