Mr. Darcy heads the pack as honours even on opening day

By Kris Shannon

A new era for the Black Caps’ seam attack started encouragingly on day one of the opening test against Australia.

Led by an unerringly accurate Matt Henry and aided by favourable conditions, New Zealand reduced the tourists to 279-9 at the Basin Reserve, as Cameron Green (103no) helped his side survive to stumps.

The Black Caps are seeking a first test victory over Australia since 2011, an achievement that eluded the team during the tenure of long-time pace trio Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner.

With Wagner omitted and announcing his international retirement earlier this week, the hosts are now counting on an unfamiliar quartet to upset their transtasman neighbours.

International rookie Will O’Rourke and domestic veteran Scott Kuggeleijn both earned a second cap, while skipper Southee picked up No 99. But it was Henry who emerged as the head of the pack, capitalising on a toss win one teasing delivery at a time.

Figures of 4-43 failed to adequately capture his control: the consistency with which he beat the bat, the number of times he found an edge, the late-swinging delivery of such quality to Usman Khawaja it should have been worth two wickets.

Henry has entered his 10th year of test cricket yet this is only his 24th time in the XI, having regularly been the odd man out in the seam group.

With Southee the last remaining link — and with Kyle Jamieson out of cricket for a year — Henry finally has a chance to keep the new ball firmly in his grasp. And it was a chance the Cantabrian seized on Thursday, having rarely appeared as threatening.

It was reminiscent of his performance on the opening morning against England a year ago, when he bowled beautifully to claim two wickets inside six overs. On this occasion, no early scalps were secured, but that owed more to misfortune.

Henry twice induced edges from Steve Smith in his opening over, but both flew low through the cordon to the fence. In his fourth, having sent down 17 straight dots on the same impeccable line to Khawaja, another thick edge raced through the gully.

It took until Henry’s sixth over for an Australian opener to produce a genuine scoring shot, the only allowed by the bowler as his length seldom strayed.

Khawaja was almost his equal, however, coping as well as could be expected with the ball moving around, and Australia looked like escaping the first session unscathed. But with 13 minutes left before lunch, Henry finally enjoyed reward, forcing Smith to play as a diving Tom Blundell did the rest.

After that 61-run opening stand, Australia lost 4-28 as the test novices played supporting roles.

Kuggeleijn was often too full but that length produced a nick from Marnus Labuschagne, snaffled by Daryl Mitchell at slip. The 32-year-old ended the day with 2-56, his second arriving when Alex Carey slapped an innocuous delivery to cover.

As in Hamilton, O’Rourke had the ball rocketing off the surface, though his line was more errant than when he snared nine wickets against South Africa. The 22-year-old returned 2-59, angling one across to remove Travis Head and later getting an edge from Mitchell Starc.

Southee, meanwhile, struggled to establish any consistency in his approach, finishing the day without a wicket after taking only two in the South Africa series.

Fortunately for the skipper, his new-ball partner continued to probe. In three consecutive deliveries early in Green’s innings, Henry drew an edge, beat the bat and barely missed the top of off.

While Green initially survived rather than thrived, Mitch Marsh was the first to play with positive intent and raced to a run-a-ball 40 before top-edging Henry in the first over after tea.

The 32-year-old had his fourth with the second new ball, nicking out Nathan Lyon, while Green attacked late and struck three fours from the final over to end the day with arms raised.

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission