Australia vs New Zealand 1st Test Day 2 Review: Khawaja, Bowlers make it Australia’s day

Australia vs New Zealand 1^st Test Day 2 Review: Khawaja, Bowlers make it Australia’s day: Another day which completely belonged to the Aussies, the bowlers ensured that New Zealand were down and out going into the third day of the first Test. While Khawaja continued his form and ended up scoring 174, Voges got into the act with a sublime 83*. The Mitchells were ruthless in their second spell, and put the New Zealand batsmen on the backfoot with 4 quick strikes. Williamson looks the only hope for New Zealand for reducing the Aussie lead going into the third day.

Earlier at the start of the day, wickets were the prime requirement for New Zealand if they needed to have any chance of a revival in this Test, and Boult provided exactly what the New Zealand wanted. Boult, who has been quite erratic over the course of the Test match, produced an absolute ripper out of nowhere to knock over Steven Smith’s stumps. But alas, Khawaja and the newcomer Adam Voges had other ideas.

Khawaja carried on from where he left off last evening, and had absolutely no trouble against the New Zealand bowlers. While both Boult and Southee got a hint of movement during the first hour, their line and lengths have not troubled the batsmen often enough. And Southee getting off the field due to the back problem did not help their matters either.

Meanwhile, batting was looking just too easy for the Khawaja-Voges pair. While Khawaja continued to play sublimely with his backfoot, Vogues ticked on at a good pace, and kept the scorecard growing at a more than decent rate. Even the introduction of spin did not hamper the pair, albeit the fact that there was some turn off the rough for Craig. But he was too inconsistent with his line and length, and barely caused any trouble. Voges got passed his half century, and despite an early jitter, Australia went back to the hut as the happier side, with 482 on board for the loss of just 3 wickets.

Post lunch session, from the perspective of Australia, was to score as quickly as possible, and it was pretty evident that Smith was waiting for Khawaja’s double for declaration. Khawaja went past his 150 and it looked like just a matter of time before he got to his maiden double century in his comeback match. But that was not to be as Guptill pulled off a ripper to dismiss Khawaja 26 runs short of the mark. Despite Voges being just 17 runs away from his own century mark, Smith decided to declare after Khawaja’s dismissal. With a hefty 556 on board, it was work cut out for New Zealand  batsmen.

New Zealand came back strongly in the post-lunch session, wherein both Guptill and Latham were positive against the Mitchells. Excluding a tough drop at FSL, there weren’t many chances offered by the New Zealand batsmen, and the duo went for tea with 43 on board. New Zealand really needed a very good last session to have any chance of making a comeback, but that was not meant to be.

Hazelwood was rewarded a few overs into the final session for sticking with the right lengths, as he invited Guptill to drive. Guptill was late to the shot, and ended up edging the ball to the third slip. Kane Williamson came into the crease and immediately settled, being rock solid at one end. For a batsman of his caliber, this was the sort of the pitch wherein he could thrive, and adapted well against the Aussie pacers. But the return of the Mitchells for their second spells started a middle-order meltdown. Starc removed Latham off the very first over of his new spell, who did not anticipate the extra bounce, whereas Ross Taylor was sent back to the hut for a duck by Johnson.

The duo struck again within overs. While McCullum was well set-up for his dismissal by Johnson, Starc removed Neesham with a scorching toe-crusher. New Zealand lost 4 wickets in space of 16 runs; at 118 for 5, the scorecard was spelling doom to the New Zealand team.

There were no more jitters in the final hour of the play. Williamson looked sublime and went on to make his fifty, while the wicketkeeper Watling was playing his role well. The duo ensured that New Zealand did not have any more casualties going into the stumps, and ended the day with 157 for the loss of 5 wickets, still trailing by 399 runs.

Summary

Khawaja and Voges squeezed the opposition bowlers into submission, and ensured that Australia got to a huge first innings total. Khawaja, despite missing out on a double, completely overshadowed Warner’s 150 and showed that he completely deserved the accolades he received yesterday. New Zealand, meanwhile, started off strongly, but an excellent spell of fast bowling from the Mitchells just an hour before the end of the day spelt doom for the visitors. A huge day ahead for New Zealand, whereas Australia would look for a good first innings total.

Brief scores

Australia 556-4 decl ( Khawaja 174, Warner 161; Williamson 1-39)

New Zealand 157-5 (Williamson 55*, Latham 47; Starc 2-30)