KEY POINTS:
A penny for Aaron Redmond's thoughts this morning.
The Otago opener was dumped from the New Zealand team for the first test against the West Indies after making 83, then falling to an awful shot in the second innings of the last test against Australia at Adelaide.
If
he was watching yesterday's opening day against the West Indies, he might have wondered why he alone had been singled out for the chop among the batting specialists.
New Zealand finished the day at 226 for four, with three of the dismissals down to loose or irresponsible shots and the fourth to the new umpiring referral rule, which cut down Daniel Flynn five runs short of what would have been a richly deserved maiden test hundred.
The University Oval pitch in Dunedin was good, their captain won the toss, but New Zealand's batsmen fell into familiar habits.
Jamie How drove loosely at his 10th delivery to be well caught low down at cover point by Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
Then fellow opener Tim McIntosh, on debut and having done all the hard work batting through the morning session, lost his head and tried to hit offspinner Chris Gayle down the ground, holing out to wide mid-on.
And to cap off the hat-trick of horrors, Ross Taylor tried to clump Gayle towards the trees beyond the mid-wicket boundary and the ball flew straight up.
The good news came from Flynn and Jesse Ryder, the latest No 3 and the player he replaced in the job, with 95 and a tidy unbeaten 54 respectively before bad light ended play 18 overs early.
The first point of interest today will be whether Ryder can push on beyond Flynn to a maiden hundred. He looked in good nick yesterday, driving crisply and at times making the bowling look easy.
McIntosh did part of his job, batting time, and although there was the odd false shot and a measure of unease against the short ball, some authoritative moments gave encouragement.
But it was Flynn, in his first first-class innings at No 3, who will have given the selectors some cheer amid the hair-pulling dismissals.
He had a couple of scares along the way but batted with pugnacity, particularly when driving and punching through the offside off the back foot.
"I was disappointed not to kick on, but I've been given a great opportunity at No 3 to make it my own," Flynn said last night.
His resolve had been hardened by the manner of the witless dismissals at the other end.
"Obviously it was disappointing the way they got out. Guys got themselves set and got dismissed like that, so I saw my role to anchor through the innings."
He'd had a couple of tough periods but "that's what making runs at test level is all about, getting through those hard patches".
Flynn couldn't look at the replay screen as Gayle's lbw appeal was referred to the third umpire. He'd felt he was okay at first but "when it started dragging on I thought I'm in a bit of trouble".
Gayle must have thought someone was smiling on him as he picked up three wickets with 20 overs of economical slow bowling.
If he turned a single delivery it would have been a trick of the eye, but on a day where the fast-medium bowlers had to stick at a largely fruitless task, the skipper took it on himself to do a holding job, with surprising success.
"It's even stevens," Gayle said last night. Early wickets tomorrow and we can set them back as soon as possible."
Jacob Oram was pulled out before the start with a tight calf muscle - Kyle Mills taking his place - but he should be available for next week's second test.
