Wickets sandwich New Zealand's stoic batting

Published : 05 Jan 2020, 13:50

Sahos Desk

It was a beautiful set up from Nathan Lyon. The first one kicked up, second went on straight, third was short, fourth was an explosion, and the fifth spun into the pads and was perhaps one of the poorer balls he'd bowled all morning.

But Tom Blundell opened up to make himself some room to whip it through square leg and ended up with an inside edge that knocked the stumps over. It was how Australia broke the overnight 63-run stand between Blundell and Tom Latham that kept Australia at bay in the final session yesterday.

Australia then picked up two more in the opening session as New Zealand went into Lunch at 141 for 3 in Sydney on Sunday, trailing by 313. Mitchell Starc got the ball to reverse early on and kept the batsmen in check, while Lyon got some purchase off the wicket. Jeet Raval, who returned to the side after being dropped for the previous Test, at No.3 joined hands with skipper Latham to add 49 runs for the second wicket, keeping Australia searching for ways to break the stand. He found the boundary against anything short, but more importantly used the gaps to rotate the strike. Together with Latham, he chipped away taking New Zealand over the 100-run mark, but Australia struck back with two wickets in three balls to end their resistance.

Lyon first trapped Raval (31) leg-before off one that didn't spin, Latham (49) then chipped a fuller delivery off Pat Cummins straight to mid on, undoing all of New Zealand's good work in keeping the hosts searching. Australia, with their tail up, attacked further.

Debutant Glenn Phillips would've perished too, had Lyon hung on to the straightforward return catch, especially on a wicket that has barely anything. Philips and Ross Taylor then took the side to Lunch unscathed thereafter, with the latter finding the boundaries at will in an unbeaten 24-run association.

 
Brief scores: Australia 454 (David Warner 45, Marnus Labuschagne 215, Steve Smith 65; Colin de Grandhomme 3-78, Neil Wagner 3-66, Todd Astle 2-111) lead New Zealand 141/3 (Tom Blundell 34, Tom Latham 49, Jeet Raval 31; Nathan Lyon 2-26) by 313 runs.

Source:AFP

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