Black Caps v Australia

[Duluth]

Australia 1 Steven Smith, 2 Usman Khawaja, 3 Marnus Labuschagne, 4 Cameron Green, 5 Travis Head, 6 Mitchell Marsh, 7 Alex Carey (wk), 8 Mitchell Starc, 9 Pat Cummins (capt), 10 Nathan Lyon, 11 Josh Hazlewood

New Zealand 1 Tom Latham, 2 Will Young, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Rachin Ravindra, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Tom Blundell (wk), 7 Glenn Phillips, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn, 9 Matt Henry, 10 Tim Southee (capt), 11 William O'Rourke

[Canes4life]

Cummins complaining about the wind. Mate, it's a light breeze atm.

[Canes4life]

Why didn't we go Wagner over SK?

[Virgil]

Bowling first is probably the right decision, but if we dont pick up 3 or 4 wickets in the first session we could be out there a long time.

[JK]

Weird seeing Wags out there in the whites but not playing. I assume he will get some fielding time?

[Virgil]

That cant have been easy for Wags to go through, great to see him leave the field after the anthems giving the playing 11 thumbs up, giving them encouragement.

[No Quarter]

We are banking on early wickets bowling first or we will get behind the 8 ball very quickly having to bat last.

Comon lads! Knock em over!

[JK]

Gee that pitch does look green

[No Quarter]

That last ball swung in and then seamed out. Unplayable.

[Virgil]

Smith has a unique batting style doesnt he.
Squares up, walks across the crease/stumps

[No Quarter]

Getting plenty of movement, often too much to get close to the edge.

[No Quarter]

They didn't appeal because he didn't hit it lol, bloody comms

[Chris B.]

@No-Quarter Yeah - I thought it looked well worth while going upstairs because it wasn't clear and obvious it had touched the ground!

[Chris B.]

I know they have their seniority and pecking order - but, O'Rourke should have opened the bowling!

[Gunner]

This is becoming a bit worrying, bowling first on a green wicket, almost an hour in and no wicket yet.

sigh

[Squirrel]

The Australian openers seem to be weathering the opening hour really well.

Which is worrying since this is theoretically when the Black Caps should have the greatest advantage.

We might be facing a troubling first innings score. But, hey, its test cricket. Things can change in a hurry (he says with optimism in his heart)

[barbarian]

Too many short/wide balls that can easily be left. When it's moving this much you don't need to overdo it - put the ball adjacent to the stumps and make the batsman play.

Plus the best way to get Smith and Khawaja early is LBW. How many balls so far have been hitting the stumps? I'd wager less than 10.

[nzzp]

Ugly, and going to be uglier I fear

[JK]

Woudnt mind a wicket

[No Quarter]

No wickets yet put Aussie firmly on top at this stage. Still, a couple of quick wickets can change things very quickly, but Aus will be very happy right now.