Cricket: One-day groove too deep

Scott Styris celebrates scoring a century at Eden Park yesterday. Picture / Kenny Rodger

They might have been wearing white flannels and using a red ball, but New Zealand appeared still locked in one-day circus mode on the first day of the opening test against the West Indies.

Having being exposed to 22 consecutive one-day internationals over the past seven months, the New Zealanders seemed caught betwixt and between at Eden Park yesterday, limping through to a first innings total of 275 after being inserted.

However, the good news was that their harum-scarum effort was overshadowed later in the day by an even worse performance from the West Indies, who were reeling at 51 for three at stumps following an outstanding all-round contribution from Scott Styris.

Having held his team's innings together with a quickfire 103, Styris then came to New Zealand's aid with the ball, taking two wickets in his second over as the West Indies conspired to turn a score of 47 without loss into 49 for three.

Chris Martin was first to strike, chipping out Daren Ganga with a rising delivery, after which Styris sent back nightwatchman Ian Bradshaw and opener Chris Gayle - who had been lucky to survive an earlier appeal for caught behind.

The slump means the West Indies will start today with a deep reliance on not-out batsmen Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan, and their left-handed skipper Shivnarine Chanderpaul.

After all the talk of needing to adjust to the longer game; of occupying the crease and batting time, the New Zealanders could not shake off the effects of their prolonged ODI exposure, and instead looked confused and uncertain in their approach.

Apart from Styris, whose fifth test century ensured New Zealand would be spared any serious blushes, most of the batsmen perished of their own hand and some would have been mortified over the manner of their dismissal.

In particular, John Bracewell's brave new world at the top of the batting order proved unsuccessful, as first new openers Jamie How and Hamish Marshall, and then rookie first-drop Peter Fulton fell within the first 90 minutes.

On the surface, How - who looked the more settled of the two openers and clipped one beautiful boundary off his legs - looked hideously unlucky when run-out at the bowler's end by an Ian Bradshaw deflection.

But the stark facts were that he backed up too far, as far as he might in an ODI contest, and gave himself no chance of guarding against an event that might be freakish in nature, but not altogether uncommon on the international stage.

Marshall, who looked unconvincing in his new role as an opener, then squeezed a rank full-toss directly to Fidel Edwards at midwicket, and debutante Fulton tried to clip Bradshaw off his pads and succeeded only in finding a leading edge.

Fleming was at least dismissed by a genuinely threatening delivery from Bradshaw, but the remaining wickets tumbled in alarming fashion as New Zealand followed up a lunch score of 70 for four with a precarious 216 for seven at tea.

Astle, whose 22nd 50 included 10 boundaries, several streaky outside edges and an early box on the ears from a Jerome Taylor bouncer, fell to an expansive drive, and Brendon McCullum, after racing to 19 off 15 balls, was bowled shouldering arms.

Even Styris seemed to fall into one-day mode for most of his innings, bringing up his 50 off just 66 balls and his century off 118, while pounding an anti-climactic West Indian attack for 15 fours and a couple of sixes.

Fast bowler Fidel Edwards ended the day wicketless. Debutante Ian Bradshaw and all-rounder Dwayne Smith made the major inroads into the home side's batting, with some late assistance from off-spinner Chris Gayle.


Styris loves his garden of Eden

Scott Styris' love affair with Eden Park is showing no signs of abating.

The New Zealand all-rounder yesterday came to his team's rescue with bat and ball, hammering an invaluable century off just 118 balls and then snaring two wickets in an over to ruin the West Indians' promising start.

His eventual score of 103 not out was his second century at Eden Park in as many tests, following his sublime 170 against South Africa in the summer of 2003-04, and came after New Zealand had slumped to 69 for four.

"Eden Park's always been good for me, so to get another hundred here is just fantastic, especially on a wicket that was doing a bit, and at a time when we were losing a few [wickets]," he said last night.

"It felt like an important hundred because we only made 275 in the end, and it was hard to work out what the pitch was doing; there was a feeling it was improving and could be easier to bat on later in the day."

Styris agreed that New Zealand found the transition from ODI to tests a difficult task after seven months of the shorter game, and said despite trying to restrict himself to a more limited array of shots, still found himself scoring quickly.

"I really wanted to face a lot of balls this innings, but I probably went at a faster strike-rate than I was looking for," he said. "We just had a good chat about it in the dressing room, because we were perhaps not as tight as we wanted to be and tried to play too many shots.

"I guess we'll look to rectify that in the second innings. It perhaps wasn't real test cricket out there in terms of the approach, but that's probably understandable given we haven't played it for seven months."

As for his bowling, he said it was a big relief to have made an impression on the touring batting line-up before stumps.


NEW ZEALAND
H. Marshall c Edwards b Taylor 11
J. How run out 11
P. Fulton c Ganga b Bradshaw 17
S. Fleming c Ramdin b Bradshaw 14
N. Astle c Ramdin b Smith 51
S. Styris not out 103
B. McCullum b Smith 19
D. Vettori c Gayle b Smith 6
J. Franklin c sub (Morton) b Gayle 14
S. Bond b Gayle 3
C. Martin c Ramdin b Bradshaw 0
Extras (4b, 2lb, 11nb, 9w) 26
Total (69.1 overs) 275
Fall: 1/23, 2/31, 3/54, 4/69, 5/140, 6/170, 7/199, 8/240, 9/261, 10/275
Bowling: F. Edwards 15-1-76-0 (3nb, 1w), I. Bradshaw 23.1-3-73-3 (3nb, 4w), J. Taylor 8-2-39-1 (5nb, 2w), D. Smith 18-2-71-3 (2w), C. Gayle 5-0-10-2.

WEST INDIES
C. Gayle c McCullum b Styris 25
D. Ganga c How b Martin 20
I. Bradshaw c How b Styris 0
R. Sarwan not out 3
B. Lara not out 0
Extras (1lb, 2nb) 3
Total (for 3 wkts, 17 overs) 51
Fall: 1/47, 2/48, 3/49
Bowling: S. Bond 6-1-17-0 (1nb), J. Franklin 6-2-21-0 (1nb), C. Martin 3-0-10-1, S. Styris 2-1-2-2.