Hello and welcome to the day one OBO of New Zealand v Australia from Christchurch’s Hagley Oval.
“It is nice to get the monkey off the back” said Ireland’s Test captain Andrew Balbirnie a few days ago after his side notched up their first victory in the format with a six wicket win over Afghanistan at Abu Dhabi’s Tolerance Oval.
Ireland’s historic victory came at the eighth time of asking, which is actually pretty darn quick in the grander scheme of things. Seven losses though was enough for Balbirnie to be summoning the imagery and heavy burden of the primate in his post match press conference. Which begs the question: if seven losses on the trot is a monkey – a medium sized gibbon rather than a burly baboon say – then what exactly is one victory over your neighbouring rivals in the last 30 years?
Last week’s 172 run loss to Trans-Tasman rivals Australia only added to New Zealand’s woeful record against their beefier bigger brother. Since their five wicket win in Auckland way back in 1993, the Kiwis have conquered those in baggy green on one solitary occasion – an arse nipping seven wicket win in Hobart in 2011. Forget monkey, New Zealand have a hulking great albatross complete with green and gold bill tethered round their necks, squawking with glee and defecating down their back*.
The next five days will see New Zealand get their last chance of sticking one back to Australia in Test cricket for at least a couple of years and what better way to do it than in the game where former and current captains Kane Williamson and Tim Southee reach their 100th Test match?
Australia are vulnerable in the batting department, the spotlight particularly is on a chronically out of form Marnus Labuschagne and a sputtering Alex Carey. The bowling though? Australia’s bowling attack is ridiculous. Cummins, Starc, Hazlewood and Lyon have been good enough to bail a mis-firing batting card out time and again over the home summer.
There’s plenty to get into then as we tick around to the teams and toss in Christchurch. Play starts at 11am local/9am AEDT and 10pm here in London. Jim here on the tools for the first half of the day before Angus Fontaine tags in later on. Please do Email or tweet @Jimbo_Cricket with your musings and missives. Righto, let’s take the plunge, shall we?
*Apologies if you are reading this with your muesli, it is post watershed where I am in the UK. Squawk!