Hadlee’s bowling keeps N.Z. on top

Press, 28 December 1987, Page 26

Hadlee’s bowling keeps N.Z. on top

By

DAVID LEGGAT,

of NZPA in Melbourne

Marvellous bowling from Richard Hadlee kept New Zealand on top after the second day of the third cricket test against Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground yesterday.

Hadlee, who needed 11 wickets to break lan Botham's world record of 373, ended the day with four for 62 off 22 overs as Australia struggled in its reply to New Zealand’s first innings score of 317. At stumps Australia was 170 for five, with Steve Waugh performing an invaluable rescue job for his country on 55 and the useful allrounder, Peter Sleep, on 16. But the day belonged to Hadlee. He found overhead and pitch conditions to his liking and made the most of his opportunity. In one splendid spell immediately after lunch he dismissed the three top order Australian batsmen, David Boon, Geoff Marsh and Dean Jones, in the space of 19 balls at a cost of seven runs. That had Australia reeling at 31 for three. There was a partial recovery from the captain, Allan Border, and Mike Veletta, who added 47 for the fourth wicket. Then Border uncharacteristically lost his head

just before tea and gave Jeff Crowe a straightforward catch at mid-off from the offspinner, John Bracewell’s, fourth ball of the innings. Veletta made his best test score, a nuggety 31, before Hadlee removed him, leg before wicket. Waugh, who combined sensible defence with flowing drives, and the doughty Sleep carried Australia to stumps without further mishap, adding 49 runs. By then Waugh had batted 129 minutes, faced 90 balls and hit seven boundaries. He had a close shave at 23 when Dipak Patel at short leg did not react sharply enough to a batpad chance off the hard working Ewen Chatfield. However, he showed how to make use of overpitched bowling by driving Hadlee to the long-off boundary for consecutive fours. A fine boundary through the covers off Bracewell raised the Australian 150 and moved him into the 40s.

three to mid-on off Hadlee. Had Bracewell snapped up a sharp chance at second slip from the first ball Border faced, the situation, and Hadlee’s analysis, would surely have been even better. The morning session belonged to Australia, which cleaned up the second half of the New Zealand innings for 75 runs. The wicket-keeper, lan Smith, made a determined 44 before being last man out, but Martin Crowe, Bracewell, Hadlee, after adding 26 in 38 balls with Smith, and Danny Morrison fell to the left armer, Mike Whitney, and Craig McDermott Whitney took four of the five wickets yesterday morning to finish with four for 31 off 10.3 overs for the day. McDermott collected his third five-wicket bag in a test innings. Although New Zealand remains 147 runs ahead, it must get among the wickets early today if it wants to get into a position to square the series.

NEW ZEALAND First innings P. Horne c Dyer b Dodemaide 7 J. Wright c Dyer b McDermott 99 A. Jones c Dyer b McDermott 40 M. Crowe c Veletta b McDermott 82 J. Crowe lbw b McDermott. 6 D. Patel b McDermott. . . 0 J. Bracewell c Dyer b Whitney 9 R. Hadlee c Dodemaide b Whitney 11 I. Smith c Jones b Whitney. 44 D. Morrison c Border b Whitney 0 E. Chatfield not out ... . 6 Extras (bl. Ib4, nb8).... 13 Total 317 Fall: 32, 119, 187, 221, 223, 254, 254, 280, 294, 317. Bowling.—C. McDermott 35, 8, 97, 5: M. Whitney 33.3, 6, 92, 4; A. Dodemaide 20, 4, 48, 1: S. Waugh 10, 1, 44, 0; P. Sleep 12, 1, 31, 0. AUSTRALIA First innings D. Boon lbw Hadlee .... 10 G. Marsh c (sub Rutherford) b Hadlee 13 D. Jones c Smith b Hadlee. 4 A. Border c J. Crowe b Bracewell 31 M. Veletta lbw b Hadlee . 31 S. Waugh not out 55 P. Sleep not out 16 Extras (lb 4 nb6) 10 Total (for 5 wickets). ... 170 Fall: 24. 30. 31, 78. 121. Bowling: R. Hadlee 22. 5, 62, 4; D. Morrison 11, 3, 37, 0; E. Chatfield 18, 4, 42, 0; J. Bracewell 10, 2, 25, 1.

He got to 50 with a