Lynn McConnell
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1st Orange Test: Australia v New Zealand at Brisbane, 8-12 Nov 2001 Lynn McConnell |
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Australia 2nd innings:
New Zealand 2nd innings: Australia 1st innings: Pre-game: New Zealand 1st innings: |
Despite the quick loss of Mark Richardson (57) and Mathew Sinclair (23), Nathan Astle and Stephen Fleming came together and started to take the match to the Australians.
Fleming, who had to overcome the three ducks he had scored in his last three Test innings in Australia, was looking in especially good touch, especially when driving Brett Lee, and Shane Warne straight back down the ground.
They added 50 in 60 balls in 42 minutes, hitting sensibly into gaps and running quick singles to keep the pressure on the field.
They induced the rare sight of untidiness in some of the Australian fielding and as the chase headed towards 20 overs to go, the run rate was around a run a ball.
But when the last 15 overs started, the requirement was 97 runs off 90 balls. Astle was 46 not out and Fleming 45.
At drinks in the final session, New Zealand were 3/100 with Stephen Fleming on six and Nathan Astle on five. Twenty-nine overs remain.
Leg-spinner Shane Warne effectively put the brakes on for the home team when having Mark Richardson leg before wicket for 57, a fine attacking innings, the last half of which was spent using a runner to compensate for Richardson's hamstring injury. He faced 69 balls and looked to attack at every opportunity.
In contrast Mathew Sinclair struggled with his placement, sending far too many balls directly to fieldsmen. In the end he was undone by Warne's flight and was stumped when comprehensively beaten with only 23 runs to his name.
Glenn McGrath earlier had shown far better appreciation of what was needed from him than was the case in the first innings. Then he lacked rhythm and control but he looked more like his usual self in the second innings and had Matthew Bell out leg before wicket for 5 and just missed getting Sinclair with a similar shout soon after.
New Zealand made no effort to alter their batting order to keep the chase on for runs. Given the boldness of Fleming's earlier declaration it was unusual that some sort of injection to the scoring rate wasn't made when Richardson was dismissed
At tea, New Zealand were 1/55 with Mark Richardson on 41 and Mathew Sinclair on six.
The situation of a victory being possible for both teams arose once New Zealand had achieved the avoidance of the follow-on by reaching 287, even if eight wickets were down.
Captain Stephen Fleming immediately declared, and then Australian captain Steve Waugh reciprocated by declaring his second innings closed at 2/84.
New Zealand were left with a minimum of 57 overs to try and score the runs.
Right from the first ball the chase was on. Brett Lee, who had five wickets in the first innings, fired in an inswinging yorker to the left-hander Mark Richardson. He dug it out and then put the pressure on the field by taking a quick single.
A throw at the stumps at the bowler's end was not backed up and four overthrows resulted.
Richardson blazed from that point on, with some especially effective driving from both Gillespie and Lee's bowling. Lee did have his wicket when Richardson got an inside edge onto his stumps, but West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor called no ball.
Matthew Bell had seen the score to 33 when he was adjudged leg before wicket to Glenn McGrath's bowling for five runs, although Bell might well have questioned the height of the ball that accounted for him.
The unusual sight of Glenn McGrath coming in as first change did have the effect of slowing the rate of scoring down.
After all the miseries provided by the weather on the first four days there is the chance of an exciting finish.
Fleming declared just before the scheduled lunch break when New Zealand passed the follow-on mark of 287 with eight wickets down.
Predictably, Australia set about getting some quick runs, opening with Adam Gilchrist instead of Justin Langer. Gilchrist scored 20 from 16 balls before he was bowled by Chris Cairns.
Then Matthew Hayden was run out for 13 off Cairns' knee as he failed to grasp a return from the deep by 12th man Lou Vincent only to see it rebound off his knee onto the wickets with Hayden just short of his ground.
Ricky Ponting had time to deposit a ball from Craig McMillan over the sightscreen for a big six and when the declaration came at 2/84, the lead was 283. Ponting was 32 not out and Langer 18 not out.
McMillan opened the bowling with Cairns, as Dion Nash was unable to bowl due to the abdominal strain which has resulted in him returning home tomorrow and taking no further part in the tour.
New Zealand's reply started in helter-skelter fashion with Richardson digging out an inswinging yorker to the left-hander, taking a single and winning four overthrows for five runs off the first over.
With the Brett Lee-induced New Zealand clean out this morning, Nash demonstrated all his renowned competitive fires in shepherding New Zealand from the perilous position of 8/271 through to the required 287.
Daniel Vettori survived a takeable chance that was dropped by Shane Warne the first ball he faced, but from that point the pair decided enough was enough and attacked.
Nash suffered a recurrence of his abdominal strain when fielding on the second day and it was decided overnight he would return home to be replaced by Shane Bond.
But with Lee bowling a superb spell with both the old and new balls New Zealand lost the key wickets of Nathan Astle (66), Chris Cairns (61) and Adam Parore (11), and what at one stage had all the signs of an early morning walk in the park became a battle for survival.
Lee was in complete control. Initially rattling the old ball through at speed, he became lethal with the new ball in his hand. It took him an over to set his radar but he then produced some outstanding outswingers and when Parore finally drove at one, the edge flew to Steve Waugh in the gully where the Australian captain dived to his left to mark his 100th Test catch.
It gave Australia every show but Nash welcomed Jason Gillespie back to the bowling crease by hitting his first four balls for two runs each to get New Zealand home.
Stephen Fleming immediately declared.
Lee finished with his fourth five-wicket bag in Tests and figures of 5/67 from 23 overs.
New Zealand's task had been made easier by no-balling problems among the Australian bowlers with 26 conceded in the innings 12 of them by Lee and nine by McGrath, who looked to be having major problems with his rhythm.
He removed the two overnight batsmen Nathan Astle and Chris Cairns within the space of three balls after they had added 95 runs for the sixth wicket, and added 56 runs on the final morning.
Having said at the end of the day yesterday that the game was far from over if Australia could get New Zealand below the follow on target, Lee did his single-handed best to keep hope alive in the Australian camp.
Midway through the extended morning session New Zealand were 7/247 and Lee had figures of four for 46 from his 17 overs.
The injured Dion Nash, who will return home after the match due to an abdominal strain, and Adam Parore were each not out on one.
Cairns was the vital blow for Lee when, after playing a typically dominating innings, he misread a slower ball which looped to Steve Waugh at a wide mid-off to see him on his way for 61.
Cairns and Astle worked away calmly when play resumed in clear, warm weather conditions.
Cairns, who hadn't faced the destroyer of the earlier part of the innings Jason Gillespie, was quickly able to regain the momentum of his innings and took successive boundaries from him, via long off and backward point, to show he wasn't going to change the way he played as New Zealand sought the follow on mark.
He brought up his half century, the 20th of his career, from 54 balls, in 79 minutes. It included eight boundaries. He also went past 9000 runs in his first-class career earlier in his innings when reaching 27.
Astle, by comparison, had an edgy morning. His preferred method of scoring seemed to be the French cut as he tried to play the ball coming back into him.
He improved his highest score against Australia, to 66, before he got a ball from Brett Lee, bowled from wider on the crease, that was edged in straight forward fashion to Adam Gilchrist behind the wickets. It was a less assured Astle today and he showed none of the apparent comfort of yesterday.
New Zealand were still 100 short of the follow-on, on 5/186 when play ended after only 222 minutes action.
They still had five wickets in hand with Nathan Astle 51 and Chris Cairns 25 not out off 25 balls.
Cairns was taking the attack to Australia and unleashed some fearsome drives before the rains came. He was dicing with death but looked to be assured and the rain ruined what was shaping as a fascinating battle.
However, the rain today seems almost certain to ensure the Test is drawn, which is disappointing for Australia as it has gone for two years without a drawn Test at home. It has also won 12 home Tests in a row.
But the record should come to an end tomorrow, and that will be sad.
If the game does end in the expected draw, Australia will take satisfaction from the batting dominance it has achieved over the New Zealand attack, even with a middle-order collapse, and its bowlers gained the upper hand over the fragile New Zealand top order.
Jason Gillespie was outstanding today with some fast accurate bowlling while Brett Lee showed some genuine fire and control in his second spell.
Shane Warne will be more frustrated than most with the weather as was gaining appreciable turn on a wicket well suited to him.
Lee had been bowling a good length and finally found the right spot to win the edge from McMillan's bat which flew to Shane Warne at first slip at a good height.
It ended the 92-run fifth wicket stand between McMillan and Nathan Astle which was threatening to carry New Zealand ever more closely to their immediate target of 287, the mark needed to avoid the follow-on.
McMillan was just starting to chime into his aggressive phase after the lunch break but Lee proved equal to the challenge and bowled consistently through his spell. Astle, normally a free-flowing batsman, continued to play the anchor, occasionally unleashing a trademark cut and by the drinks break he was on 44.
Chris Cairns replaced McMillan and was straight onto the attack, taking three long on from the first ball he received, from his great rival Lee.
He had moved to 13 at the drinks break.
New Zealand were 4/115 at the end of the long two and a half hour session, still 172 runs from avoiding the follow on. Nathan Astle was 27 and Craig McMillan 26, the pair having added 60 runs for the fifth wicket.
With the top knocked off the Kiwi order, Steve Waugh wasted no time getting leg-spinner Shane Warne into the attack from the 23 rd over.
The fourth day pitch had everything he needed, bounce, grip and turn, and he faces a heavy workload on the remaining two days of the match.
His battle with Craig McMillan was especially interesting, with the Kiwi never having been afraid of taking Warne on in the past. It was a fascinating tussle but with more sun on the pitch, the odds seemed weighted in Warne's favour.
McMillan did manage to club him for a six to mid-wicket but, with the pressure on to maintain his wicket for as long as possible, he wasn't able to attack as much as he would have wanted.
One cut shot from Jason Gillespie's second spell of the morning was a sizzling shot, and much better played than the more aerial effort managed by Mathew Sinclair when he was dismissed.
Nathan Astle also showed restraint in his approach realising the recovery mode was more important than looking for quick runs.
And the quality of the Australian bowling didn't often allow those chances anyway.
Astle was dropped by Damien Martyn, his second drop of the day, at mid-on from Warne's bowling when on 24. Diving forward, Martyn seemed to think the ball was better hit, only to find it dying on him. He got his fingers to the ball but could not control it.
Brett Lee produced some tidy bowling as well and several times slipped the ball past both batsmen's bats without any luck.
Jason Gillespie claimed the first three wickets to fall in the first hour and a half utilising helpful conditions with the ball cutting on the still moist surface and just before the drinks break was sitting on a hat-trick with the scalps of Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming in a fine spell of bowling.
At the drinks break New Zealand were 4/72, with Nathan Astle 13 and Craig McMillan five.
Richardson had been in some trouble with the ball moving across him from both Gillespie and Glenn McGrath, and it was only a case of Gillespie getting the ball up far enough and through Richardson's defences before a chance was there for the leg before wicket decision.
It came when he was on 26.
Fleming, another left-hander, came in and got a rip-snorter of a ball which just caught the edge of his bat and flew to Gilchrist behind the wicket. That had New Zealand reeling at 3/51 but Astle was able to avoid the hat-trick. Fleming finished his spell with his figures reading 10 overs, six maidens, 18 runs three wickets.
Mathew Sinclair replaced the first wicket to fall, Matthew Bell, who also received a good ball, full and moving away slightly for the edge to fly to third slip where Ricky Ponting held the catch.
Sinclair should have followed Bell to the pavilion before he had scored but Damien Martyn in the gully dropped the chance from McGrath's bowling.
However, the introduction of Brett Lee bore immediate fruit. He had Sinclair, who had waited so long, larrup a wider ball, couldn't avoid the temptation of Lee's first ball. He cut at the ball and gave it everything but didn't count on Ricky Ponting's athleticism behind point. The diving Ponting held a superb catch which removed Sinclair for three and left New Zealand reeling at 4/55.
Leg-spinner Shane Warne was introduced for the 23rd over.
Conditions were the sunniest of the Test and a full day's play was expected. In an effort to make up for lost time, 105 runs were required to be bowled today.
By that stage New Zealand had made their way to 0/29, a start built on some discomfort being felt by the Australian bowlers, Glenn McGrath, especially, and Jason Gillespie.
However, Australia finished the day well on top, although the loss of all but 87 minutes of play has made it increasingly harder for Australia to push for the win.
New Zealand will still face the requirement to play out whatever play is possible on the last two days, so their first need will be to reach 287 to avoid the follow on.
When play ended for the day, Mark Richardson was 10 not out and Matthew Bell six not out.
Play will start tomorrow at 9.30am local time, 12.30pm New Zealand time.
Lunching on 98, he cut a ball from Chris Cairns past gully and while it was well fielded to prevent the boundary, he did score the two runs he needed.
It was an impressive effort, off 143 balls and included 14 fours and a six, made all the more memorable by the slow start he made.
Captain Steve Waugh wasn't tempted to declare immediately after he reached the mark. Gilchrist and Jason Gillespie were given an open chequebook and they cashed in, hitting out and carrying the score to 486 before Gilchrist finally hit a chance to hand.
On 118, on his 158th ball faced, he miscued a lofted drive and a diving Lou Vincent, New Zealand's twelth man, took a tidy catch to give Cairns a five-wicket bag, the 11th of his Test career, for the most runs he has conceded, 146. Gillespie chimed in as well and hit 20 useful runs off 31 balls.
With the total on 9/486, New Zealand faced a battle in difficult conditions to reach the follow on mark of 286, but in the 6.4 overs possible before the rains returned, Mark Richardson and Matthew Bell had seen the score through to 0/29.
Bell did his best to run himself out at one stage but managed to regain his ground after being turned back by Richardson. Bell didn't seem to hear the rebuttal and continued for a few more steps before turning and beating a high return to the wickets.
Glenn McGrath especially, looked to be having trouble with his footing.
Chris Cairns got his third ball of the morning through Brett Lee's defences and while there was a sound, television replays showed it wasn't bat or glove, but probably the top of his pad.
Lee had added only one run to his overnight score to finish on 61 on a day that saw the first two hours of play lost to the effects of steady overnight rain.
At lunch after a half hour of play, Australia had advanced to 8/450 with Adam Gilchrist 98 not out and Jason Giillespie on four not out
Adam Gilchrist continued on from where he left off, and while there was more movement of the ball off the pitch, he maintained his attacking momentum, although he had cause for two lots of heart palpitations.
The first was when he was responding to the call of batsmen Lee for a quick single, which only saw Gilchrist to safety when a smart throw from reserve New Zealand fielder Lou Vincent just missed hitting the stumps.
The second was when he skied a ball from Dion Nash which flew high to deep mid-on where a diving Matthew Bell was not able to haul in the difficult chance.
But a thumping pull for four from Cairns' bowling took him to 96 in style. However, he was unable to get his three figures before lunch, something that may cause captain Steve Waugh to delay his declaration.
After only 134 minutes of play on the second day, the umpires ruled that play would start 30 minutes earlier at 9.30am local time. But despite the best intentions of the laws, no play looks likely during the extended first extension.
Umpire Steve Bucknor said: "The field is very wet and it is going to be difficult to see any cricket today if it keeps raining."
He said no decision on a possible start time would be made until it stopped raining.
The Gabba outfield is well known for its recuperative qualities and once rain does stop it is expected to recover quickly.
After only 134 minutes of play had been possible during the first two sessions, it started raining during the tea break and no restart was possible.
The umpires abandoned play after waiting an hour to see if there would be any clearance.
They decided that play on the third day will start half an hour early at 9.30am (12.30pm in New Zealand) tomorrow.
Australia goes into the third day in the powerful position of 7/435 with Adam Gilchrist in sight of his fourth Test century on 88 with Brett Lee on 60, only two runs short of equalling his highest score in Tests.
At the tea break Australia were superbly placed at 7/435 with Gilchrist on 88 (123 balls) and Lee 60 (86). Their partnership has raised 133 runs at a run rate of 5.05.
The Kiwis struggled during the intermittent stages they were able to get into the middle in the first half of the day, and were positively flogged as Gilchrist and Lee unleashed their strokes.
All the good work the New Zealanders did in the third session of the first day was washed out, literally and figuratively, as the bowlers failed to achieve anything like a competitive line.
Their situation was not made any easier with the damp ball they were required to bowl with as the result of the constant drizzle dampening the outfield.
Adam Gilchrist was untroubled by the rain breaks which marred the day and when the afternoon session finally got under way he polished off his half century in quick fashion. Despite the problems he had in the early part of his innings, he accelerated, passing his 50 off 86 balls in 131 minutes. He had taken 62 balls to score his first 20 runs and his next 42 came off 30 balls.
He took 11 runs off a Dion Nash over as he helped himself with lusty pull shots to the boundary and as the New Zealanders struggled for an opening, he and Brett Lee raised their century stand off 119 balls.
Along the way they also broke the Australian partnership record for Tests against New Zealand of 93 set by Kerry O'Keefe and Gary Gilmour at Auckland in 1976/77.
Then Lee, not wanting to be left out of the action, executed a superb cut to a ball from Cairns which landed over the boundary then in the same over pulled a boundary to mid-wicket to bring up his half century off 69 balls, and including seven fours and a six.
With all the rain interruptions, 70 overs will be required to be bowled on the day.
New Zealand's injury worries also surfaced when left-arm medium-fast bowler Shayne O'Connor was taken to hospital for a precautionary x-ray on his knee.
By the lunch break in the rain-shortened session Australia had added 67 runs for the loss of only one wicket and were well placed at 7/361.
Adam Gilchrist might have spent the first part of the morning struggling for the swashbuckling touch that has been his forte throughout his Test career but he was at least holding out the New Zealand attack which was looking to polish off the Australians as quickly as possible. And he had started to take control by the lunch break as the Kiwis foundered.
He did lose his overnight partner Shane Warne when the leg-spinner attempted to cut a short ball from Chris Cairns. He failed to get onto it as well as he would have liked and Mathew Sinclair in the gully took the catch. Warne scored 22 and Australia was 7/302.
Only one over was possible before rain forced the players to sit out nearly an hour before play was able to resume.
With the outfield still damp, the onus was on the New Zealand bowlers to avoid allowing the Australians to hit the ball over the damp outfield too often. Unfortunately, the bowlers couldn't contain the enthusiasm of Brett Lee especially as he punished the wayward Dion Nash.
Just before the lunch break, Gilchrist started to find his better touches when Craig McMillan was reintroduced into the attack.
The first day destroyer looked more like a second day tug, as Gilchrist started to attack, his finest shot being a beautifully-timed on drive which fairly raced across the damp outfield to the boundary.
Lee was superb. Quick to get anything short and wide of off stump, he was powerful on the cut and built up an impetus that proved hard to contain. His only false shot was just before the lunch break when he squirted a ball from Shayne O'Connor through the vacant slip region for four runs.
It was the second boundary, in four successive balls, that went to the boundary. Two for Lee and two for Gilchrist. Gilchrist's first off the first ball of McMillan's second over was straight driven beautifully. It took him to 44 while Lee went to lunch on 31, scored off 40 balls.
And after four runs had been taken the umpires, Steve Bucknor (West Indies) and Daryl Harper decided it had become heavy enoughy to warrant leaving the field.
The covers were put on and a late finish seems assured if play can re-start and the weather holds.
At stumps, Australia were 6/294 with Shane Warne on 18 and Adam Gilchrist on 13.
Australia lost six wickets for 64 runs at one stage and had every reason to be thankful for the record-breaking opening partnership of 224 between Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer.
After Hayden was out for 136, Langer had a big role to play in holding the innings together.
Langer went to drinks on 98 and then in Astle's first over after the break he unleashed a fine cover drive to the boundary to achieve his century, a second successive century after his innings in the fifth Test on the Ashes tour of England. It was the ninth Test century of his career and was scored off 217 balls in 294 minutes.
But no sooner had he achieved that than he lost his captain Steve Waugh who was given a medium-paced battering by Craig McMillan who then pitched a ball up which Waugh edged behind to Adam Parore when he was on three runs. Four wickets had fallen for 32 runs.
Fleming maintained his attack of Astle and McMillan and it produced another gem when Damien Martyn cut at a ball that rose on him. It was a shot fraught with danger and he paid the price as the ball flew high to Vettori at a deep point position.
New Zealand's assault had all the elements of a cleverly-planned attack.
And that continued as they finally removed Langer, caught at deep backward square leg by Vettori for 106, which meant Australia had lost six wickets for 64 runs.
McMillan did a superb job for the New Zealanders taking three for seven off five overs but Fleming had no qualms in taking him out of the attack as soon as the new ball was due as he gambled on Cairns and Nash not being so free with the first new ball earlier in the day.
However, no further wickets fell as Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne nursed Australia through to stumps to fight another day.
McMillan finished with three for 13 for his efforts while Cairns had two for 95 and Astle one for 29.
Chris Cairns provided the inspiration that saw three wickets fall in the space of 11 runs to breathe some life into what had been a lacklustre New Zealand effort.
Australia was 3/250 at the drinks break in the last session of the day with Justin Langer on 98 and Steve Waugh on one.
The vital Cairns blow was finally removing Matthew Hayden when the pull shot finally undid him. It was more on the off-side and had a little more bounce and he mis-cued it high to backward square leg where Mark Richardson held the catch.
Hayden scored 136 off 195 balls, including 20 fours and two sixes.
Ricky Ponting joined Justin Langer and had five runs when he played at a rising ball which flew high behind the point area where Daniel Vettori had to turn and run back to take the ball over his shoulder, and having to avoid a gully fieldsman doing his best to get in his way.
Fleming maintained his faith in medium-pacer Nathan Astle by having him continue his spell to new batsman Mark Waugh. The move paid off when Astle slipped one through his defences and had him out leg before wicket, West Indian umpire Steve Bucknor proving more ready with the finger than Daryl Harper earlier in the day to Justin Langer before he had scored.
Australia were 3/235 and the New Zealanders thought they finally had Langer when another ball from Cairns was taken by Sinclair in the gully, however, Harper sought the third umpire's view and it revealed the ball was a bump ball from Langer's bat.
Langer immediately rubbed salt into the wound New Zealand had been feeling all day by hitting Cairns straight and moving ever so carefully towards his century.
Just before the tea break, he and opening partner Justin Langer beat the 1993/94 record of Mark Taylor and Michael Slater of 198 runs for opening partnerships by Australia against New Zealand.
Australia went to tea at 0/199 with Hayden on 120 and Langer on 72 with 96 runs being added in the session.
It was a glorious innings by Hayden in a year that has been so significant in his career. He punished the limited New Zealand attack, initially be resorting to some fearsome pull shots but then settling into some dazzling straight, off and cover drives.
He also took the battle to left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori charging his first ball of the Test and hitting it for six and charging him again to loft a straight drive to the boundary for the four runs that take him to his century.
Hayden took 138 balls to reach the mark and hit 15 fours and one six.
Justin Langer, very much the junior partner in the stand, scored his half century during the session as well, taking 124 balls in the first over after drinks.
The first hour of the session produced the best bowling from the New Zealanders as they conceded only 31 runs, but no sooner had the drinks cart left the ground than the assault was on.
First up was the 150-run partnership, then the Hayden century and by the end of it the partnership record.
While the run rate slowed up compared to the heady rate achieved during the morning, the signs were that the New Zealanders were going to face a massive first innings total.
In the hour, only 31 runs were scored as Matthew Hayden advanced to 87 and Justin Langer 41
The bowlers came out after lunch clearly having been force fed the virtues of accuracy and were much tidier in their line. The lack of freedom seemed to cause some frustrations for the batsmen, a situation personified by Hayden when he was on 83.
Hayden drove hard at a ball from Shayne O'Connor and Craig McMillan, fielding at extra cover dived full length to get his hand around the ball only to drop it as his elbow hit the ground.
Australia was 0/125 at that stage and it was the only chance Hayden had offered to that stage of his innings.
Hayden broke the shackles with an elegant on drive for four in O'Connor's next over to move to 87.
When Vettori returned to the bowling crease, he offered Langer a ball too full and wide outside off stump and Langer wasted no time cover driving to the boundary - a welcome relief for a batsmen lacking chances to attack.
Australia were 0/103 with Justin Langer 26.
Starting out assuredly with his trusty pull shot, Hayden brought up his half century off only 54 balls, in 76 minutes. He was especially severe on Dion Nash and left-arm fast-medium Shayne O'Connor, at one stage hitting O'Connor for three successive boundaries, one on either side of the stumps at the bowler's end and the third pulled.
It was impressive stuff and forced New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming to bring in his left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori earlier than he might have preferred. But that did nothing to ease the run scoring as Hayden greeted Vettori's first ball by putting it back over his head for six runs.
Two balls later he went for four.
By comparison, Justin Langer was battling turbulence in Hayden's wake. He survived the first over leg before wicket appeal which should have gone Chris Cairns' way and then was beaten several times as he attempted to remain intact.
As time went on however, his confidence grew and it was his cover drive to a fuller ball from Vettori that brought up the 100 partnership from 145 balls and took his own score to 25.
It was Hayden's morning, an outstanding innings, that gave the New Zealanders no respite with only Cairns emerging with any real credit.
At the end of the first hour, they were 0/38, Matthew Hayden was 27 and Justin Langer eight.
Controversy, the fuel of so many trans-Tasman contests wasn't long in raising its head. The fifth ball of Chris Cairns' first over, the first of the game hit Langer on the back leg, in front of middle stump, but umpire Daryl Harper didn't agree with New Zealand's appeal.
Cairns continued to trouble Langer through the early overs, an edge in his third over falling just short of second slip Nathan Astle.
Hayden was given an easier introduction into the match with Dion Nash not quite so controlled through his earlier overs. Two pull shots to short balls were rapidly despatched through mid-wicket to the boundary.
Nash bowled four overs in his first spell at a cost of 11 runs, but did not make the batsmen play at a high percentage of the balls they faced.
Shayne O'Connor replaced him and while his first ball joined the growing selection of Hayden pull shots to the boundary, he did swing the ball through the rest of the over, causing some reflection on the fact he didn't open the bowling with Cairns.
Langer's confidence was helped when he managed to pull a ball from Cairns for four, in an over in which Cairns conceded 10 runs.
Hayden struck the shot of the first hour when straight driving a ball from Cairns for four to move to 27.
Conditions in Brisbane are overcast and the pitch looks to have moisture in it.
Clearly, the New Zealand attack faces a battle to make an impression against the well-performed Australian batting line-up.
But in choosing to bowl first, New Zealand face the prospect of having to bat last on a pitch expected to offer more to spinners later in the game.
The pressure is on the New Zealand attack, with four players coming back from injuries, the three pacemen, Chris Cairns, Dion Nash and Shayne O'Connor and left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori.
Andy Bichel was named Australia's 12th man with Lou Vincent New Zealand's 12th man.
The teams are:
Australia team: JL Langer, ML Hayden, RT Ponting, ME Waugh, *SR Waugh, DR Martyn, +AC Gilchrist, B Lee, SK Warne, JN Gillespie, GD McGrath, AJ Bichel (12th man).
New Zealand team: MH Richardson, MD Bell, MS Sinclair, *SP Fleming, CD McMillan, NJ Astle, +AC Parore, CL Cairns, DJ Nash, DL Vettori, SB O'Connor, L Vincent (12th man).
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 12 Nov2001 - 10:41