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| November 23, 2001 | Friday | Ramazan 7, 1422 |
Lucky Langer hammers third successive century
HOBART (Australia), Nov 22: Justin Langer made New Zealand pay dearly for a duffed catch to register his third successive Test century as Australia ransacked the bowling on the opening day of the second cricket Test at the Bellerive Oval here Thursday.
Langer, who survived a strident lbw appeal in the first over of the opening Brisbane Test before going on to score a century, profited from a spilt catch off his sixth ball Thursday to compile 123, his 10th Test hundred.
Langer was put down by Matthew Bell in the gully off Daryl Tuffey’s first ball of the Test when on one.
Australia suffered another mid-afternoon flutter of wickets, similar to the first day in Brisbane, but by stumps had scorched along to 411-6 at a blistering scoring rate of 4.5 runs per over.
Tasmanian Ricky Ponting was delighting his home state supporters to be on the verge of his ninth Test century on 92 not out with Shane Warne on 31.
But the first day’s play belonged to the breezy batting of Langer, who posted his third consecutive Test hundred after his 102 against England in the fifth Ashes Test at The Oval in August and 104 in Brisbane.
At one stage Langer was on target to join a select group of players to score a century before lunch on the first day, being 59 after the first hour before his scoring rate moderated in the hour to lunch.
Langer, who celebrated his 31st birthday Wednesday, cracked 20 fours in his 153-ball innings before he was caught by Daniel Vettori off Chris Cairns just after the third hour of play.
David Boon was the last Australian batsman to string together three consecutive Test centuries, against England in 1993.
Langer also shared in his third straight century opening partnership with Matthew Hayden, putting on 223 for the first wicket after their 158 at The Oval and 224 in Brisbane.
Hayden and Langer’s sequence of Test opening stands is the most by an Australian first-wicket pair, surpassing Jack Fingleton and Bill Brown’s 233, 99 and 162 consecutive partnerships in South Africa in 1935-36.
New Zealand’s bowlers, already weakened by the loss of injured pacemen Dion Nash (abdomen)