Tour match: Queensland v New Zealanders at Brisbane, 1-4 Nov 2001 CricInfo Live Report

Tour match: Queensland v New Zealanders at Brisbane, 1-4 Nov 2001
John Polack

New Zealanders 1st innings: Lunch - Day 1, Tea - Day 1, Stumps - Day 1,

ASTLE DOES IT BY THE BOOK ON FINE DAY FOR TOURISTS

To overcome Queensland's bowlers, you need to think and play positively. To be ready to meet Australia, you need not only to do that but to be feeling confident too. So full marks to Nathan Astle who effectively killed each of those two birds with one very fine century, leading New Zealand to a score of 6/332 as its tour match against the Bulls opened at the 'Gabba today.

When the itinerary for this New Zealand tour was drafted several months ago, it had always been anticipated that this game would prove crucial to Test preparations. That the party was ultimately forced to come to Australia early in the wake of its abandoned trip to Pakistan - and that it has encountered two weeks of toil against a series of state second eleven teams - significantly accentuated the fact.

But, while some outsiders were accordingly inclined to view these as desperate times for the visitors, Astle (160*) for one showed there was absolutely no need to resort to desperate measures.

Against a state team generally regarded as possessing the best attack in Australian domestic competition, the 30-year old right hander unfurled an innings that was so littered with shots from the textbook that its publishers should be able to use it to advance their preparations for a reprint.

With captain Stephen Fleming (69) and Chris Cairns (39) also in heartening form, it was an encouraging day overall for the tourists. Albeit that they had by far the best of the conditions on a docile pitch.

After they had won the toss - on a warm day framed by blue sky almost everywhere on the horizon - the odds were probably always in favour of at least one of the visitors' batsmen producing a meaningful innings. But this didn't prevent Matthew Bell (1), Mark Richardson (11) and Mathew Sinclair (16) from being removed inside the first hour.

Courtesy of a mid-pitch tumble, Bell would have been run out by metres and by as early as the second over if there had been a direct hit at the bowler's end from Ashley Noffke. But the miss scarcely altered the early trend of the contest.

Andy Bichel (2/54) soon produced a delivery which pitched just short of length and trapped the 24-year old in front of his stumps as he attempted to shuffle across them and defend off the back foot.

Richardson failed to last either, handing left arm debutant Mitchell Johnson (1/43) a wicket in soft fashion. Instead of working a half volley on the line of leg stump square of the wicket, he merely succeeded in spooning the ball into the mid wicket area to present Noffke with a simple, waist high catch.

And Sinclair, after a scratchy stay, ended his exhibition in meek style too as he failed to move his feet in chasing and bottom edging a wide delivery from Noffke (1/60) himself.

Once into an exposed middle order, Queensland generally takes only fractionally more time to polish off its opponent than it does most people to eat their breakfast.

Yet, suddenly, there was no way through here.

Fleming started particularly watchfully, and it still remains a mystery as to how he managed to keep the outside edge of his bat marginally inside the line of the very first delivery he received.

For the next three hours, though, he and Astle were rarely bothered.

Until the captain finally succumbed to a mistimed drive at part-time medium pacer Clinton Perren (1/15) that ended at short mid off, they dominated proceedings with a 175-run liaison replete with brilliant shotmaking.

There was, fleetingly, a nervous patch for Astle shortly after tea, and he dodged a bullet at 95 when second slip fieldsman Jimmy Maher appeared to lose sight of an edged shot that went whistling past him at perfectly catchable height.

Yet there were few other false moves from him at any stage in his occupation.

In the course of recording his highest score outside New Zealand - and shattering his previous best first-class score in Australia of 40 - he expertly dispatched short deliveries off the back foot and was even more impressive off the front. Two powerful sixes - over long off and long on respectively - crowned an exhibition littered with bruising strokes.

Once able to discover his timing in the half-hour before lunch, Fleming for his part played characteristically strongly through mid off and the covers. He also struck several scorching drives back past the members of a predominantly pace-based attack.

That the Queensland bowlers encountered the unfamiliar experience of struggling for line and delivering an incessant stream of no balls said something about the extent to which the terms were being dictated to them. It has been a long time since the Bulls last found themselves requiring two of their number to snare their opening first-class wickets to help rally the cause.

EXPERIENCED PAIR PROLONGS STRONG NEW ZEALAND REVIVAL

To beat Queensland's bowlers, you generally need to think positively, use your feet well, and be confident and aggressive in your strokeplay. And perhaps there could be no better demonstration of this than the one provided by Nathan Astle (82*) and Stephen Fleming (69*) during the middle session of the first day of New Zealand's tour match against the Bulls at the 'Gabba in Brisbane.

From the ruin of 3/34, the two experienced internationals have crafted a brilliant 167-run partnership to take the Kiwis to a mark of 3/201 at tea.

Admittedly, the conditions at the 'Gabba - on a warm day framed by blue sky almost everywhere on the horizon - are well in favour of the batsmen.

But that fact shouldn't be allowed to unduly detract from the exhibition of the middle order duo.

Astle has looked decisive from the moment he walked to the crease, and has played accordingly throughout his innings. In the course of shattering his previous best first-class score on Australian soil (of 40, in the Third Test against Australia in Hobart in 1997-98), he has expertly dispatched anything short off the back foot, albeit that his play off the front foot has arguably been even more impressive. Two powerful sixes - over long off and long on respectively - have crowned an exhibition littered with strokes based firmly on the copybook.

Fleming started in far more circumspect fashion, and was only a matter of inches away from edging the very first delivery of his innings through to the wicketkeeper. But, after he was able to discover his timing in the half-hour before lunch, his has also blossomed into a fine innings. He has played characteristically strongly through mid off and the covers and has also struck several scorching drives back past the members of a predominantly pace-based attack.

Some of the square cutting of both players has also been a treat.

The Queensland bowlers, for their part, have toiled manfully and beaten the outside edge of the two players' bats more than once. But this has been a generally frustrating session for them on a pitch which shows few signs of offering anything in the way of encouragment for them.

The closest they came to a breakthrough was when exciting teenage paceman Mitchell Johnson sent a delivery crashing into Fleming's pads when the New Zealand captain's score was 66.

ASTLE, FLEMING ATTEMPT TO MOUNT RECOVERY AS BLACK CAPS STRUGGLE AGAIN

It's a new day, and it comes with a new venue and new opponent. But New Zealand's earnest struggle for form has continued through the opening session of its tour match against Queensland at the 'Gabba ground in Brisbane today.

At lunch - after winning the toss - the Black Caps are positioned at a mark of 3/97.

Though Nathan Astle (37*) and Stephen Fleming (19*), two of their most experienced players, provided some heartening signs with an unbeaten stand of 63 in the lead-up to the interval, it wasn't an ideal start to the match by any means for the tourists.

There were ominous signs for them by as early as the second over, when opener Matthew Bell (1) tumbled in mid-pitch after playing a ball into the leg side and setting off for a hasty single. Bell would have been run out by metres if there had been a direct hit at the bowler's end from Ashley Noffke, but the miss scarcely made much difference to the early trend of the contest.

Andy Bichel (1/14) soon produced a delivery which pitched just short of length and trapped the 24-year old in front of his stumps as he attempted to defend off the back foot.

A scoreline of 1/10 was partially restored by Mathew Sinclair (16) and Mark Richardson (11) but the former, in particular, was consistently beaten and never looked comfortable.

Richardson's dismissal, which handed left arm teenage quick Mitchell Johnson (1/29) his maiden first-class wicket, came first of those two and was an especially soft one. The left handed opener seemed to be intent on working a half volley on the line of leg stump square of the wicket but merely succeeded in spooning the ball into the mid wicket area instead, duly presenting Noffke with a simple catch at around waist height.

After playing and missing more than once; twice edging Bichel deliveries past second slip; and surviving two lbw appeals in one over from the same bowler only a matter of minutes later, Sinclair perished at the start of Noffke's first spell of the match. Doubtless, it won't be a moment on which the number three reflects fondly: he chased a very wide delivery outside the line of off stump from the young right armer with no detectable movement of his feet to bottom edge a regulation catch to wicketkeeper Wade Seccombe.

Under a vast expanse of blue sky, and on a pitch offering very few hints of variability in movement or bounce, a mark of 3/34 represented an especially disconcerting start.

Astle and Fleming, nonetheless, have shown that the Black Caps could yet take plenty away from this day. Unlike his teammates, Astle was positive from the outset of his innings, wasting little time in ticking the scoreboard over with two effectively played strokes through mid wicket off Michael Kasprowicz (0/27). Each of those shots set the tone for a display that has featured several leg side nudges as well as some nicely timed drives.

And, after all but finding a way to nick his first delivery to the 'keeper and then embarking on a very cautious start, Fleming has also settled well. One straight driven boundary off Noffke (1/22) arguably represented the highlight of the morning's strokeplay.

And, even before those two came together, matters hadn't run entirely smoothly for the Queensland pacemen either.

Bichel started the match with a wide and all but produced another two deliveries later, and there has been a steady stream of no balls from the Bulls' pace quartet ever since.

On his first-class debut, meanwhile, Johnson has looked understandably nervous. He encountered early problems with overstepping and with his run-up in general and has battled to find a consistent line and length for the most part, spearing a number of deliveries too wide of both off and leg stumps. Television replays showed he also may have been a touch fortunate to snare Richardson's wicket given that the delivery responsible also appeared to have been delivered from in front of the crease.