Boxing Day Test. Australia v. New Zealand.

[K]

Santner is bowling poorly. Paine helps himself to easy runs. Paine has a start now.

The 50 partnership comes up. They are going well. Brayshaw praises Paine and says the batting was stagnant when Smith was in. (Ponting noted that Smith scored 3 off his first ball of the day and then only 5 more runs in the next hour.) 12 runs come from the last over before lunch.


Oz 5/336 (117). Lunch.

[Donny]

76 run partnership for Head/Paine.

Oz 5/360. Head 67*, Paine 47*.

[Donny]

105 run p'ship.

5/389.

[Donny]

9/463.

Head 114, Paine 79, Neil Wagner 4/79.

[Donny]

All out 467.

NZ 0/23.

[Donny]

Cummins draws first blood. Blundell out for 15.

1/23.

[Pies4shaw]

NZ 2/44 at Stumps. Looks like Smith’s hard-fought innings has broken NZ and exposed its soft underbelly.

[K]

[K]

Brettig:

Paine breaks shackles to play classical keeper's innings

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/_/id/28375819/tim-paine-breaks-shackles-play-classical-keeper-innings

"Fast forward to the Boxing Day Test, however, and Paine was able to bat with a clarity of thought about his role and his future that reflected a far greater degree of focus on how he best serves his team, and for how much longer he may do so. Late December, generally a time of stocktaking, also saw him state far more frankly that yes, he is now looking at leading the team all the way through to the 2021 championship final at Lord's, should Australia manage to qualify.
...

But in Melbourne, after perhaps growing a little frustrated with Australia's slow progress alongside most of the 59,676 present at the MCG, Paine set out to play a classical wicketkeeper's innings.
...

At the same time, Paine gave Head the confidence to score more freely himself, going on to a century that may well come to be seen as a vital, formative moment for the South Australian left-hander after so many squandered starts in the past.

All up, their stand was worth a bold 150 in 43.3 overs, quite a contrast with the furtive 68 squirrelled away in 31.1 overs by Head with Smith either side of stumps on day one. Paine had thus collected the majority share of the partnership that ensured Australia would surpass 400 for the fourth consecutive Test match, a position which the coach Justin Langer knows is just about impregnable for a team with Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon to call upon.

In the end, Paine was deprived of the chance to go on to a first Test century by a hearty Wagner and a ball-tracking verdict that appeared to miscalculate the first point of impact with the stumps: a dose of misfortune for Paine that he appeared more than a little miffed about."

[K]

Baum, The Age:

"Paine’s contribution was a case of cometh the man, cometh the hour. Naturally attacking in the wicketkeeper-batsman model, Test cricket’s many pinches have not always suited. But this moment, when second gear needed to become third, did. With surprisingly few alarms, he took on the Kiwis’ short-ball barrage when others baulked, drove breezily when afforded the chance and with Head disappeared over the New Zealanders’ horizon. He will rue only that he did not advance to 100, for as much as he looks like Peter Pan, he is not."

[K]

A. Ramsey, cricket.com.au:

"However, the talking point to dominate post-match discussion among the crowd of 59,676 – a day two record for a non-Ashes Test at the MCG – was Head's hundred that doubtless ensures he will more fully enjoy his 26th birthday on Sunday.

The Test vice-captain had found himself once more in the cross-hairs of critics after he succumbed to a couple of soft dismissals in the opening Domain Test in Perth earlier this month, and was being touted as a possible exclusion for the current Boxing Day match.

That was when Australia – unsure of the pitch that awaited at the MCG and eyeing the tight turnaround ahead before the third Test in Sydney – aired the prospect of playing five specialist bowlers to ease the workload on their specialist quicks.
...

Gone were the speculative drives and high-risk horizontal-bat strokes that bowlers have preyed upon, replaced by solid defence and studied leaving of deliveries that might bring about his downfall.
...

By shifting their attack to around-the-wicket, Boult and his new-ball partner Tim Southee deprived Smith of any width and the increasingly frustrated Australian – who had strategically shelved his pull shot to preserve his wicket – began to take blows upon his person.

The most frightening of those was a bumper from Wagner that followed Smith across the crease and led him to instinctively protect his face as the ball thudded into his right forearm.

Four overs later, Wagner produced a similar rearing delivery that smacked into the handle of Smith's bat and seemed destined to elude Henry Nicholls at gully until the acrobatic fielder half-turned in mid-air and threw out one hand into which the ball somehow stuck like a stuffed toy in a claw machine.
...

But rather than fodder, Paine became an agitator as he not only launched the counter-attack that Smith had battled to muster but effectively thumbed his nose at the Kiwi tactics by batting outside his crease and occasionally advancing down the pitch."

[K]

Deano (yesterday morning):

"The batsmen have to get smarter. Courage is important but letting the ball hit you, as Matthew Wade did in Perth, is not the answer as something will end up breaking. It’s just a matter of when."

[And on TV Ponting asked why, if they're going to play the short ball like that, they don't wear arm guards. Good question!]

Deano:

"I asked [S.] Waugh about his game plan. “Each player has to come up with a game plan that they will commit to and are comfortable with,’’ he said. ‘‘I wasn’t a great hooker compared to cutting the ball. So it was a no-brainer from me.’’"

[Donny]

Carnage.

NZ 6/100. Cummins 3/17, Pattinson 2/19.

[Pies4shaw]

Cummins finally, inevitably, gets Latham. 7/112. Still, NZ is at least 27 runs better than Smith.

[Pies4shaw]

All out 148. Australia will bat again, starting with a lead of 319.