An unbeaten century from Cameron Green helped Australia gain a slight advantage over New Zealand on day one of the first Test at Basin Reserve in Wellington on Thursday, February 29. Green scored his second Test ton on a green-top and rescued a dwindling Australian batting order as the tourists ended day one with 79 runs on the board for nine.
Earlier in the day, Time Southee got lucky with the toss and asked Pat Cummins to bat first. Southee's decision made sense as seaming track awaited the Aussies. New Zealand's pace quartet of Southee, William O'Rourke, Scott Kuggeleijn and Matt Henry utilised the conditions to their advantage and put relentless pressure on the Aussies.
Barring the 61-run opening stand between Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja, and a 67-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Green and Mitchell Marsh, the visitors lacked partnerships and struggled for most of the day. Smith was looking steady at 31 but just when it looked that he had gotten a feel of the track, Henry produced a brilliant outswinger to send him packing.
The dismissal opened the floodgates and it saw Australia stumble from 61 for the loss of one wicket to four down for just 89 on the board.
While the delivery to Smith was an unplayable one, the one that got the better of Khawaja was arguably the seed of the day. Khawaja was late on an expansive drive and failed to make contact with an impeccable inswinger. The southpaw lost his middle pole to Henry and was forced to trudge back to the dressing room at an individual score of 33.
Cameron Green aces Green-top Test
Having been promoted to bat in the middle order after Smith's elevation to the top, Green needed to play a solid knock, justifying the trust reposed in him by the team management and it came today. He took his time and practised restraint on a tough deck that had plenty for the pacers.
The 24-year-old star allrounder played very close to his body and abstained from chasing the wide ones whenever the Kiwi bowlers dangled the carrot outside his off stump. Unfazed by the fall of wickets at the other end, Green batted with aplomb and struck a boundary through the backward point region on the second-last delivery of the day's play to bring up a much-deserved hundred.
The right-handed batter is still unbeaten alongside Josh Hazlewood and would like to add as many as possible to Australia's overnight total on day two.
