Fleming arrives to bolster faltering Kiwi challenge
SYDNEY, Nov 1: Much-missed New Zealand skipper Stephen Fleming arrived on Saturday to be greeted with news of a batting collapse that has his team staring at defeat to New South Wales just days from the first Test against Australia.
Fleming flew in from home where he has been recovering from a virus, but the performance of his Black Caps against NSW would not have lifted his spirits. Discarded Test leg-spinner Stuart MacGill (4-52) again dazzled the Kiwi visitors on a turning Sydney Cricket Ground track as they lost 7-18 in a dramatic collapse late on day three to set the home team up for a crushing win on Sunday's final day.
Chasing 129 runs for victory, NSW resume at 25 without loss in their second innings with openers Phil Jaques on 16 and Greg Mail nine. Stand-in New Zealand captain Scott Styris put a positive spin on his team's inept batting performance fresh from their successful tour of Bangladesh.
"Apart from the last session and 40 minutes in their first innings, we have done well in this match so far," he said. Styris said the match was invaluable preparation for next week's opening Test against Australia in Brisbane.
"We said at the start that the result was never that important, it was about preparing ourselves for next week and preparing ourselves for bounce bowlers again." New Zealand started positively with all rounder Jacob Oram knocking back the stumps of Brett Lee and MacGill with consecutive balls as NSW added just eight runs to their overnight total to be all out for 286 and an innings lead of 73.
New Zealand openers Mathew Sinclair (79) and Mark Richardson (50) put on 110 for the opening wicket before Richardson was bowled trying to swipe MacGill over mid wicket. The Black Caps were 183 for three, a lead of 110 runs, before the dismissal of Sinclair triggered a collapse just as it did in the first innings.
All the major bowlers were successful with Matthew Nicholson (2-31), Lee (2-37) and Jason Krejza (2-48) supporting the MacGill show. MacGill's match figures of 8-109 again left doubts about New Zealand's ability to play quality leg spin before the Gabba Test starting on Thursday.
The fight for the final New Zealand batting position between Hamish Marshall (18,0) and Craig McMillan (14,17) became no clearer as neither player impressed in the one and only Test lead-up game.
Express paceman Lee exposed Marshall's technique against raw pace in the first innings with the two-Test player being tangled up as the ball crashed into his stumps.
But a positive for the visitors was the resilience of Australian-born Sinclair, 29, who again looked reasonably comfortable in his former homeland, backing up his 88 with another half century.
His time in the middle will be invaluable before Brisbane as he attempts to improve on his poor record against Australia. Sinclair's overall record is 1,294 runs at 39.21 in 23 Tests but he's only managed 141 runs at 12.81 in six Tests against Australia. -AFP
