Gilchrist and Lee make merry

By Malcolm Conn

BRISBANE, NOV. 9. The ever-damaging Adam Gilchrist and free- spirited Brett Lee took the first Test away from New Zealand on a bad news day for the Kiwis which could have a significant bearing on the remainder of the series.

Gilchrist finished unbeaten on 88 and Lee 60 not out as the pair guided Australia to an impregnable 429 for seven by stumps during the little more than two hours of play which was possible at Brisbane's Gabba on the second day.

During this record eighth wicket partnership - 127 unbroken - New Zealand left arm seamer Shayne O'Connor was forced to leave the ground with a reoccurrence of the knee tendinitis which has made this his first Test in almost a year.

He had an ultrasound which will be assessed by an expert but remains in doubt for the remainder of this Test and the cluttered three-match series.

New Zealand's misery was compounded further when umpire Daryl Harper all but admitted that he erred by failing to give Justin Langer out leg before wicket on Monday to just the fifth ball of the match.

Langer went on to add a record 224 with fellow opener Matthew Hayden and was the sixth man out for 104.

``Unfortunately there are a lot of things in cricket, whether you're a batsman, bowler, fielder or umpire, that you would like to pass over and move on to the next delivery. It looks like that was one of them,'' Harper told ABC Radio.

``I don't think you need to be a Rhodes Scholar to have a look at the replay and see what happened.''

Simply, the ball pitched on middle stump and would have hit middle stump had it not hit Langer on the pads before a run had been scored. While there are significant penalties for players and officials who comment on umpiring decisions, there is nothing in the International Cricket Council's code of conduct preventing umpires talking about their performance.

Not surprisingly, New Zealand team manager Jeff Crowe was guarded, offering only: ``He said it all.'' The Kiwis were constantly frustrated on the field as well, continually complaining to the umpires about a wet ball as Gilchrist (13 fours, one six) and Lee (nine fours, one six) plastered it all over the damp outfield.

This prompted Gilchrist to join one of the conversations, claiming that he did not care how often the ball was changed in an attempt to keep the game moving.

He was surprised that New Zealand did not ``come at'' the Australians harder after ripping heart out of the middle order on Thursday to rebalance the match.

``They slowed down the overrate and set negative fields,'' Gilchrist said. The Australian vice-captain also believes that while the Kiwis have done their homework on the specialist batsmen they were uncertain how to bowl to a free- swinging Lee, who played the shot of the day, a six sliced over third man from a Chris Cairns short ball.

Only one wicket fell on Friday. Shane Warne added just four to his overnight score of 18 when he slashed at a ball from Cairns and was well caught by Mathew Sinclair leaping high in the gully.

New Zealand's plundered bowlers will hardly want to know that Gilchrist is not much fussed with the bat he wields after he put them to the sword.

He is using a new bat unleashed just last week during Western Australia's ING Cup win over Tasmania, but the ``garden bat,'' split and taped to the point where it appeared useful only for the beach or the back yard, destroyed England over the northern summer and remains in his bat rack.

``It could probably still go a bit but the face is hanging out of it,'' Gilchrist said. Old faithful stayed together long enough to blaze 340 at an average of 68, causing the English players to label Gilchrist the key to Australia's batting.

This suggested a strange focus given that the gloveman bats below such a powerful and well-credentialled top six, but it highlights how dangerous is his ability to turn a game.

He and Zimbabwe's Andy Flower are the only two regular glovemen in history to have a career average above 50.

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