Cricket: Extra bowler possible for Adelaide

By RICHARD BOOCK


Don't be surprised if New Zealand respond to their first-test debacle at Brisbane by dropping a batsman.

Bowled out for a record low (in Australia) of 76 on Sunday, the New Zealanders will consider flying in the face of popular opinion and reducing, rather than increasing, their run-scoring options for the Adelaide test, starting on Friday.

As strange as it sounds, there is a suggestion that the touring team would gain more by leaving out Craig McMillan and Hamish Marshall and instead promoting the in-form Jacob Oram and the unlucky Brendon McCullum up the order.

The theory is that Oram and McCullum appear to have the skills to cope with the extra batting responsibility and seem to have more momentum than the distracted McMillan or the inexperienced Marshall.

Possibly the biggest problem with the move is that it would represent another bold gamble for New Zealand coach John Bracewell, who has already ventured out on a limb with a number of selections, and has crashed and burned on each occasion.

Bracewell, whose test record is the polar opposite of his one-day record, plumped for Kyle Mills instead of Ian Butler at the Gabba, and at the last minute turned his back on the reasons for having Marshall in the squad, opting instead for McMillan.

He lived to regret both calls; Mills not measuring up when the ball became old and McMillan looking so far out of sorts that it would be almost cruel to persevere with him at Adelaide.

For all the controversy over walking, the sobering facts are that McMillan fell to a rush of blood in the first innings and committed a cardinal sin in the second when he became involved in an altercation and was dismissed next ball.

Whatever might be said about the rights and wrongs of the walking issue, it should be conceded that McMillan had no right to become involved in a verbal exchange considering the position of his team at the time and his own tenuous position within it.

Bracewell's stance on fast bowler Ian Butler has also come under fire, especially as Mills did not measure up at the Gabba, where conditions were tailor-made for the pace bowlers, and especially those who tried to hit the surface hard.

With that in mind, it is hard to imagine how Bracewell could find grounds for playing Butler on the batsmen-friendly pitch at Adelaide, when he opted against playing him on a Gabba wicket that provided good pace and bounce.

However, if desperate times call for desperate measures, then Bracewell may well be looking to pull another rabbit from the hat this week, if only because the more conventional options look almost destined to fail.

His stance on Paul Wiseman will be viewed with particular interest, considering the Canterbury slow bowler was only selected in the touring squad so that he could provide another spin option at Adelaide, as was stated at the time of the team announcement.

For all that, the concern with Wiseman is that he has a habit of bowling too slowly through the air, and could find himself under huge pressure against batsmen of the class of Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting and Michael Clarke.

On the other hand, if Oram is promoted up the order, Bracewell will have room to play three pacemen and two spinners, and may well decide to stack the side with as many wicket-taking options as possible.

His only comforting news yesterday was that James Franklin seems to have all but recovered from his groin strain injury.