On Thursday, February 29, at Basin Reserve in Wellington, Australia defeated New Zealand by a narrow margin thanks to an undefeated century from Cameron Green. As the visitors finished the first day with 79 runs on the board for nine wickets, Green salvaged a diminishing Australian batting order with his second Test century on a green-top.
Time Southee got fortunate with the toss earlier in the day and requested Pat Cummins to bat first. With the seaming track waiting for the Australians, Southee’s choice made logical. The speed four from New Zealand—Southee, William O’Rourke, Scott Kuggeleijn, and Matt Henry—took advantage of the circumstances and applied constant pressure to the Australians.
With the exception of Steven Smith and Usman Khawaja’s opening stand of 61 runs and Green and Mitchell Marsh’s 67-run partnership for the fifth wicket, the visitors struggled and lacked partnerships for the most of the day. At 31, Smith seemed to be solid, but just when it appeared like he had a handle on the course, Henry delivered a spectacular outswinger to send him reeling.
Australia collapsed from 61 for the loss of one wicket to four down for only 89 runs after the dismissal, which let the floodgates open.
The ball that defeated Khawaja was maybe the best of the day, even if the one to Smith was unplayable. Khawaja missed the perfect inswinger and was late returning from a long drive. At an individual score of 33, the southpaw was forced to go back to the dressing room when Henry took his middle pole.
Following Smith’s promotion to the first team, Green was moved up to bat in the middle order and had to demonstrate today why the club management trusted him. He was patient and exercised self control on a hard deck with lots of holes for the pacers.
The 24-year-old star all-rounder avoided chasing wide balls and played extremely close to his body whenever the bowlers from New Zealand dangled the carrot outside his off stump. Undaunted by the wicket-taking at the other end, Green played with great skill and on the second-last ball of the day’s play, he smashed a boundary over the backward point area to reach a well-earned century.
Alongside Josh Hazlewood, the right-hand hitter is still undefeated and wants to add as many runs as possible to Australia’s overnight total on day two.