New Zealand bowlers prove surprise package on first day

GABBA, Nov 8: What was shaping as a nightmare day for New Zealand cricket in the first Test at the Gabba in Brisbane turned around on the control of Chris Cairns, and the belligerence of bullocky part-timer Craig McMillan.

New Zealand was shaping up to confirm all the worst held fears of Australian critics that they wouldnt be able to foot it with the world champions, especially when the score was 0/224, an Australian opening record in Tests against New Zealand.

It was a situation that occurred because of the outstanding batting of Matthew Hayden, who made light of any perceived difficulties expected of a pitch looking to have a higher than usual moisture content, and due to New Zealands attack being in the hands of four bowlers returning from injury, which was how they looked.

But a last session collapse which, at one stage, saw six wickets fall for 39 runs gave New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming some reward for his decision to bowl first after winning the toss.

He still had to see the back of Adam Gilchrist before he could reflect the damage had been really done.

And by stumps Australia had recovered to 6/294.

How much different things might have been had Justin Langer been given out leg before wicket in the first over of the day when trapped by Cairns on his back leg in front of middle wicket.

However, it was to be the end of the day before any turnaround occurred for the New Zealanders and by that time Hayden and Langer had cashed in big time.

The significance of their effort was all the more apparent by days end.

Matthew Hayden was in outstanding touch and while he was at the crease there was no respite for the New Zealand bowlers.

From the outset he pulled the ball with impunity, producing a clarity of timing in his strokeplay which, as his innings progressed, was moved to his driving, both straight and through the off side.

The first session assault mounted by Hayden put the lie to the notion there would be something in the pitch for the New Zealand bowlers.

Although they did nothing to help themselves by being too free with wide balls that did not provide any concerns for the batsmen.

And with the balls too short, or full, Hayden was waiting to punish them severely.

He brought up his 50 off 54 balls and then when New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming introduced left-arm spinner Daniel Vettori, Hayden showed who was boss from the first ball, putting over the bowlers head for six runs.

For New Zealanders, the game had many similarities with their first Test victory over the West Indies at Hamilton two summers ago when the West Indian openers put on 276 on the first day and were 1/282 at stumps, only to be all out for 365, and eventually soundly beaten.

Cairns was the destroyer on that occasion, but he had much more support this time around.

While he went to lunch at 71, Hayden was forced to work much harder for his runs after the break for the first hour as the bowlers found much more consistent accuracy to yield only 31 runs in the first hour.

Hayden added only 16 runs in that hour but the break was sufficient to see him rejuvenated and he was severe on Dion Nash to race towards his century which came up with a lovely off driven four from Vettori.

He took 138 balls and hit 15 fours and a six.

Langer, by comparison, had to struggle for all he was worth.

But in his case perseverance paid off and although there were not the dramatic shots that Hayden played, there was grit and after 294 minutes he had his reward.

His ninth Test century, the second in successive innings, scored off 217 balls, ended when he became Craig McMillans third victim, caught in the deep, at backward square leg by Vettori for 106 to leave New Zealand 6/263.

The nature of the collapse was notable not for any blistering bowling, rather from the traditional New Zealand medium pace of Nathan Astle, who got a leg before wicket decision against Mark Waugh before he had scored, and Craig McMillan whose jaunty belligerence netted him three wickets for five runs at one stage, with the wickets of Steve Waugh, Damien Martyn and Justin Langer.

Chris Cairns worked in tandem with Astle and gained the initial breakthrough by claiming Haydens wicket and then adding Ricky Ponting.

The test for New Zealand is to polish off the threat posed by Adam Gilchrist when play resumes tomorrow.

Giles, White and Ormond passed fit to tour India The England and Wales Cricket Board today confirmed that Ashley Giles (achilles), Craig White (knee) and James Ormond (knee) had all been passed fit to tour India following fitness tests at Edgbaston today.

White and Ormond both bowled in the nets today under the supervision of the England physiotherapist Dean Conway and have been given the all-clear to resume cricket by medical specialists.

Ashley Giles has made an excellent recovery from his achilles operation and will continue his rehabilitation programme on grass during the initial stages of the tour.

He is not expected to be available for selection for the warm-up matches in India, but if his recovery goes to plan he will be in contention for the Test matches.

Ashley Giles said: "Ive really made great strides with the injury in the last three weeks and everything has gone to plan apart from picking up an infection in the achilles which prevented me training for a while.

"But once I get out to India that will give me an opportunity to get used to playing on grass again and work on my fitness with Dean Conway and Nigel Stockill.

Im not going to put pressure on myself by saying when I think I will be ready to play again, but hopefully I can be in the frame for the first Test.

"Everyone Ive spoken to says India is a fantastic place to tour and Im really looking forward to the challenge of bowling to top-class players like Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar." Door opens for Cullinan Test recall JOHANNESBURG, Nov 8: Daryll Cullinan has been given an unexpected opportunity to reclaim his Test match place with a late inclusion in the South African A team which meets India over four days starting in East London on Saturday.

Cullinan, who returned to first-class cricket last weekend following several months out after knee surgery, has been called up to replace Justin Ontong who has withdrawn with a hamstring injury.

He top-scored for the Highveld Strikers in both innings of a low-scoring match against Easterns last weekend, but clearly needs to do more to persuade the national selectors that he should regain his place in the Test side.

At the same time, the pressure is mounting on Boeta Dippenaar, who batted at five in the first Test against India, scoring 20.

At the same time, it is likely that Dippenaar will be given another chance in the second Test, but if he fails again and Cullinan makes runs for the A team, the veteran of 70 Tests will have made a compelling case for his recall.

At which point the question of his selection for the tour of Australia will arise.

He has suffered through two disappointing tour of Australia in the past, and in any circumstances would not be an automatic choice for a third visit, but if he is the Test match incumbent, it would hard for the selectors not to take him.

The position is further clouded by the lack of clarity over Jonty Rhodes.

Although he has said that he does not wish to play Test cricket, the official United Cricket Board lines is that he can be called up for Test matches "in an emergency".

Rhodes, who turned out for KwaZulu-Natal in the SuperSport Series last weekend, would quite clearly be a considerable asset in Australia with one middle-order position still not settled.

Stretching this further, if a Test series against Australia does not qualify as an "emergency", then it is difficult to imagine what would.

In one other chance to the A side, Dale Benkenstein will replace HD Ackerman as captain.

Ackerman has a shoulder injury.

Charl Willoughby, meanwhile, has a knee injury and will undergo a fitness test.

Garnett Kruger of Eastern Province has been placed on standby.

South African A team: Jacques Rudolph (Northerns), Graeme Smith (WP), Martin van Jaarsveld (Northerns), Daryll Cullinan (Gauteng), Dale Benkenstein (capt, KZN), Justin Kemp (EP), Thami Tsolekile (WP), Paul Adams (WP), Charl Langeveldt (Boland), Andre Nel (Easterns), Charl Willoughby (WP).

Garnett Kruger (EP on standby).

Twelfth man: Gulam Bodi KwaZulu-Natal Ranji Roundup Dharmani slams ton to bail out Punjab AMRITSAR, Nov 8: A century knock from the dependable Pankaj Dharmani (106) enabled Punjab to score 300 runs for the loss of nine wickets against Services during their North Zone Ranji match being played at Gandhi Ground, Amritsar, today.

Services won a good toss on a grassy wicket and wisely put their opponents in to bat.

Seamers Sudhakar Ghag and Syed Javed proved the decision right as they sent three top order batsman back to the pavilion with the scoreboard reading just 32.

Ravneet Ricky (0) was the first to depart, in the very first over of the day, dismissed by Ghag.

Vikram Rathour (1)threw away his wicket in the fourth over as he chased a delivery off Javed to give a simple catch to Yashpal Singh at point.

Manish Sharma irresponsibly steered an outgoing delivery off Ghag to gully fielder PM Reddy, who did not make any mistake.

Seasoned campaigner Dharmani then joined southpaw Yuvraj Singh, who was looking in good nick from the very first ball that he faced.

The duo lived up to their reputation to get their team out of the woods.

Dharmani was in tremendous touch and seemed to be unshakeable even though the ball was seaming a lot because of the early moisture in the wicket.

The seam trio of Ghag, Javed and Pandey bowled an accurate line and length, but the pair took their team score to 97 for three at the stroke of lunch.

Dharmani completed his half century with a classic off-drive to the boundary off Pandey.

The second session of the day was dominated by Punjab as they scored 99 runs and lost only the wicket of Yuvraj Singh, who lost his cool just 54 minutes before tea.

Yuvraj Singh (67) became the third victim of Ghag as he drove at an outgoing delivery, playing away from the body, giving a regulation catch for wicket-keeper Sarabjit Singh.

Yuvrajs knock of 67 runs came in 121 balls, with nine hits to fence and a mighty six during his stay of 156 minutes at the crease.

The pair added 127 valuable runs for the fourth wicket partnership.

Dinesh Mongia (11) came in at the fall of Yuvrajs wicket and stayed for 54 minutes at the crease but made the same mistake as Yuvraj just two minutes after tea.

Javed brought about the dismissal, with the scoreboard reading 196 for five.

Reetinder Singh Sodhi then stepped to join Dharmani, who was holding the fort from one end.

Dharmani played elegant stokes to all parts of the ground, completing his century in style as he cut a short ball from Pandey to the point boundary.

He was finally sent back to the pavilion by a classy in- cutter from Pandey, which took a thick edge for the keeper to hold.

Dharmanis knock was studded with 18 sweetly timed boundaries.

Sandeep Sanwal played a quick cameo of 17 runs off 16 balls, but then became the fourth scalp of Ghag.

Sodhi, in the company of tail-ender Gagandeep Singh, put on 41 valuable runs.

He missed his half-century by two runs, caught and bowled by Ghag while trying to pull a short ball and mistiming it; his knock came off 74 balls with nine fours.

Gagandeep Singh (19) was the last wicket to fall in the day.

Javed took three wickets for 61 runs.

At stumps, Punjab had scored 300/9, with Vineet Sharma batting on eight and Babloo Kumar yet to open his account.

Himachal bundled out for 145 on Day One MANDI, Nov 8: Jammu and Kashmir took advantage of Himachal Pradeshs reckless batting to bowl their rivals out for 145 in 75.1 overs on the first day of their North Zone Ranji league match at Mandi.

Ashwani Gupta and Jagtar Singh led the tourists assault, claiming four and three wickets, while Surendra Singh and Vijay Sharma picked up two and one wicket respectively.

Earlier in the day, Himachal Pradesh won the toss and elected to bat.

The hosts took the first blow in the 10th over when Nischal Gaur was caught behind by Vikrant Taggar of Surinder Singh.

Barring Rajeev Nayyar, who remained unbeaten on 41, all the Himachal batsmen gifted away their wickets, negating the advantage of winning the toss and batting first on a good wicket.

At the end of the day, Jammu and Kashmir were at 22 for one in 15 overs.