Australia saunters to six-wicket win

WELLINGTON, MARCH 27. The Australian cricket team juggernaut proved unstoppable as it swept to its record ninth Test victory with a comprehensive six-wicket verdict over New Zealand with a day to spare in the second Test on Monday.

Steve Waugh's Australians clinched their trans-Tasman series 2-0 with the final match against the Kiwis to be played at Hamilton, starting on Friday.

Australia made it a triple triumph by also bettering the previous national record of eight held by Warwick Armstrong's team since the 1920-21 season.

Should Australia win the third Test it will face the tantalising prospect of playing the West Indies at home next summer for the record of 11 consecutive wins held by the great West Indian team of the 1983-85 era.

Australia set up the victory by dismissing New Zealand for 294 in its second innings just after lunch and needing 174 runs to claim victory at the Basin Reserve. It lost Michael Slater (12), Greg Blewett (25), Justin Langer (57) and Steve Waugh (15) along the way, but the target was always comfortably within its reach.

Mark Waugh hit a four off Nathan Astle for the winning runs in lengthening shadows to remain 45 not out with Damien Martyn on 17.

Slater was officially named man-of-the-match for his influential 143 in the first innings, although New Zealand allrounder Chris Cairns had his supporters with a majestic 109 and six sixes in his thunderous 69 in the second innings along with taking three for 110 in Australia's first innings.

Other notable achievements over the four days of the Test were Steve Waugh's 22nd Test century with an unbeaten 151 in the first innings and leg-spinner Shane Warne's seven match wickets to take him to 363 Test wickets and past Pakistan's Imran Khan as the eighth all-time leading wicket-taker

New Zealand's efforts to put pressure on Australia's relentless push for victory were hamstrung by left arm spinner Daniel Vettori's inability to bowl after tea due to a chronic lower back injury suffered in the field during the second day.

Vettori, the youngest bowler to reach 100 wickets in Test cricket after his 12-wicket haul in the first Auckland Test, was sadly missed as the New Zealanders relied solely on strike bowler Cairns to topple the Australians.

Vettori is unlikely to be available for the third Test with selectors set to announce their team on Tuesday. There could be other changes.

The Kiwis resumed at 189 for five with hopes hinging on captain Stephen Fleming and Cairns to continue their defiant 105-run partnership, but Australia broke through removing Cairns to a dubious lbw decision off Glenn McGrath for 69 and Fleming for 60 in a soft catch to Greg Blewett at mid-wicket.

But the tailenders proved stubborn and led by fast bowler Simon Doull's 34-minute cameo knock of 40, featuring a six off Warne and six fours, and wicketkeeper Adam Parore's gritty 33 before he was magnificently run out by a direct throw from Blewett, the Kiwis gamely stuck on. incapacitated Vettori batted with Mathew Sinclair as a runner and scored eight before he was caught by Steve Waugh in the gully off Brett Lee.

New Zealand's resistance ended shortly after lunch with Parore's run out and Australia set about in a businesslike manner accumulating the runs for victory. The Kiwis had some small victories along the way. Slater was out when he recklessly skipped down the wicket to swipe the first ball of Vettori's eight-over spell and was stumped by Parore for 12, leaving Australia 22 for one.

- AFP

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Kamlesh Kumar prevails over Deepak
Next     : Indian batsmen fail again