Email Us Forum Mail Article Print Article

Cairns & Styris Give NZ The Edge

Saturday, June 12 2004

New Zealand would have been the slightly happier of the camps at the end of Day 2, in a day that saw the advantage of the match ebb and flow between the sides all day long.

The morning session saw Styris continue his re-emergence to form as his cover driving was as good as anyone around, timing the ball sweetly of the middle of the bat.

While Styris was looking in great touch it was again the other end that was causing the New Zealanders downfall, as the middle order again failed to form any significant partnerships by throwing away their wickets in poor fashion.

First to go was Oram who was looking uncomfortable against the shorter ball aimed in at his rib cage, before a lose delivery from Saggers veered harmlessly down the leg side or so it seemed, Oram attempted to heave the ball over the square leg area but only succeeded in flicking the ball up in the area for Strauss to take a simple catch just inside the 15 yard circle.

Just four overs later Saggers was again the wicket taker as Cairns attempted to attack his end, Cairns went for a huge shot down the ground but got under the ball a fraction to much and instead of finding the river outside the ground it went high up in the air and Thorpe took a fantastic catch on the run.

Mid way through the session Styris brought up his hundred with a clip for four through midwicket, but soon after Vaughan introduced the spinner into the equation before lunch and Styris found a leading edge off Giles trying to hit the ball through the leg side, the ball flew up in the air and straight to the substitute fielder (Bilal Shafayat) in the covers, the innings survived through to the lunch interval however it subsided in just three overs after lunch.

Hoggard took three attempts to catch McCullum's flay over the slips down to third man. Hoggard soon had Mills caught behind off his outside edge to bring up his 100th wicket in Tests, although after a few replies it appears the ball might have dropped a fraction short. Four balls later Hoggard wrapped up the innings, with the help of another fumbling catch, this time by the captain at backward square leg.

In reply England made the worst possible start to their reply as opener Strauss was promptly brought back down to earth as he made the unwanted honour of making his Test duck by edging the third delivery off Chris Cairns in his first over.

More bad news for the New Zealand team come in just Martin's second over as he pulled up holding the back of his legs (later revealed to be hamstring related), the news bought Franklin into the attack somewhat sooner than he had expected. The left-arm seamer responded in the best possible manner, pitching one up to a struggling Butcher who duly had a fish at the ball and only managed in edging it straight to Styris at second slip.

There were no more incidents before the Tea interval with Trescothick and Vaughan helping himself to some wonderfully timed boundaries, and racing alone at over four and over. At Tea Vaughan was 44* and Trescothick 45*.

Resuming on 99/2 after Tea, England looked set to take the match away from New Zealand with Vaughan looking in devastating touch including pulling the first ball after Tea for six over the fine leg boundary and bringing up his personal 50 in the process from just 49 balls.

Carins finally had something to shout about as he bowled on of his slower balls, and with a combination of that and the pitch seeing the ball staying very low, Vaughan couldn't jab his bat down onto it quick enough and the ball thundered into the pad right in front, leaving Vaughan and the rest watching what might have been. Vaughan made a rapid-fire innings of 61 from just 65 balls and was looking well set to add another century to his name.

Trescothick fell shortly after in a similar fashion to that of Butcher, he fished at a wider ball and only managed to get a thick edge that flew to the man at gully for an easy catch. The wicket left England finally balanced on 140/4.

Thorpe and Flintoff set about digging in and consolidating the situation after the lost of two quick wickets and despite Fleming continuing to mix up his bowlers, even bringing on McMillan to roll his arm over there didn't seem the edge that might bring a wicket.

McMillian did managed to fine the edge of Flintoff's bat, with the ball popping up onto the leg side, McCullum made a despairing dive, only to see the ball land inches from his gloves.

Cairns in his farewell Test then produced the final twist in the day, trapping Flintoff lbw for 54 to make honours fairly even at the end of the day. Thorpe will resume tomorrow on 30, while night watchman Matthew Hoggard is yet to get off the mark.

Match Summary

Day 1: New Zealand 294/4 (Styris 68*, Oram 10*; 90 overs)
Day 2: New Zealand 384, England 225/5 (Thorpe 30*, Hoggard 0*; 57 overs)

Posted by Richard