McCullum stars on thrilling first day

The foot-fault problem that James Pattinson publicly proclaimed this week he had conquered has the potential to haunt his team for the remainder of the current match against New Zealand, and perhaps until another chance to claim the world’s number one Test ranking presents itself.

Australia resumes tomorrow at 1-57, still 313 runs adrift of a New Zealand total that at one stage today looked likely to deliver less than half its eventual return of 370 and the Christchurch pitch showing early signs it might turn benign as quickly as last week’s at Wellington.

Quick Single: McCullum blasts fastest ever Test century

Where the Australia batters piled on 562 after knocking over their hosts inside the first day. 

But the cost of the no-ball from which Pattinson ‘dismissed’ Brendon McCullum when had scored 39 only to have video evidence end Australia’s celebration tallied 106 in the Black Caps skipper’s personal account and 161 in his joint venture with Corey Anderson. 

The latter coming in complete contrast to the village green, quaintly traditional cricket setting in Christchurch, at a most un-Test-like rate of around 10 runs per over.

But the longer-term deficit, after New Zealand had been sent into bat and immediately into deep trouble on a grassy pitch that was heavenly for Australia’s seamers for the first 90 minutes, was only starting to become apparent by the end of day one in the second Test.

Which Australia must not lose if they are to realise their ambition of being formally crowned by the ICC as the best Test team.

That seemed almost pre-determined when the coin fell in Steve Smith’s favour, the NZ batsmen could not find a run, and every half chance was snared by some extraordinary cordon catching to send the home team to 3-32 inside 20 overs.

And then 5-92 a half hour after lunch when the Black Caps best batsman Kane Williamson was scooped up by Smith at second slip and Mitchell Marsh took an even sharper catch in the gully to send McCullum on his way for a threateningly counter-attacking 39.

Or so everyone, including McCullum who began his penultimate walk back to the dressing sheds to rapturous applause, thought until the now infamous video screen revealed Pattinson’s indiscretion and the capacity crowd lounging on Hagley’s grass banks went fully sick. 

That’s when the Test match turned as quickly and as about-facedly as did the 34-year-old local hero who, upon seeing footage of Pattinson’s foot, spun on his heel and without lifting his gaze from the turf beneath him or revealing a hint of blessed reprieve marched smartly back to the wicket.

Given the occasion and the circumstance, the moment could hardly have elicited a greater sense of theatre but that’s what came with the realisation that this very problem had been floated and refuted by Pattinson just two days before the Test.

That’s when, against the historic backdrop of the pair of ‘wickets’ he claimed during the Boxing Day Test against the West Indies that were belatedly ruled invalid due to overstepping, Pattinson made it clear the past was where that problem had been consigned.

“I've done a fair bit of work on it," Pattinson said on Wednesday after it was confirmed he would return to Test cricket after overcoming a bout of shin soreness and he was asked about the no-ball conundrum that plagued him in Melbourne.

Quick Single: Pattinson no-ball costly for Australia

“I played that (recent Sheffield) Shield game and my foot was well behind the line by all reports, from the umpires.

"I'm feeling pretty good.”

He was not feeling that good when McCullum, who could have felt justifiably aggrieved so good was the catch that Marsh held as the ball scorched past his right shoulder before he instinctively threw out a single mitt, celebrated the reprieve next ball with a swivel pull shot to fine leg.

Where Josh Hazlewood lost sight of the projectile against the packed grass mounds that ring Hagley’s similarly verdant outfield, and suffered the indignity of having it strike him in the chest before it bounced over the boundary rope.

Hazlewood had been the architect of the early squeeze applied to NZ’s batting, and a reason why the top order was so skittishly subdued in the first hour and a half as he hit a nagging length and let the pitch – and his close catchers – take care of the rest. 

The pressure he built in conceding just 11 runs from his first 10 overs aided the work being done by Pattinson (who made the initial breakthrough having bowled with pace and bounce) and Jackson Bird who was almost as parsimonious as Hazlewood.

But McCullum decided that someone had to change the momentum, and while his strike rate of better than 200 in the three overs he faced prior to lunch served notice of how he intended to achieve that, it was the shift that accompanied the no-ball that defined the day.

Quite possibly the match and, if that’s the case, the determination of the world Test crown.

From the 29.4 overs that came after the moment Marsh’s classic catch was downgraded to a brilliant save – which came 29.4 overs into the day – NZ lifted their score from 4-92 to 8-320.

From battling to hit the ball off the square in the morning session, they were regularly threatening to launch it out of the stadium between lunch and tea (when 211 runs were scored from 24 overs for the loss of just two wickets).

By day’s end, thanks to invaluable cameos from Corey Anderson (72 from 66 balls) and B J Watling (58 from 57) the Black Caps had made a mockery of the angst that swept Hagley Oval when Smith announced at the coin toss that Australia would bowl.

On a pitch that the home team coach had asked to be dusted with an extra shade of green to make it even more bowler conducive than the one in Wellington, when his team was skittled for roughly half what they made today (183) in not dissimilar time.

There’s only been 14 previous occasions in Test history when a team has been sent into bat and finished the first day of the match with 370 runs or more on the board.

And the Black Caps managed that in two and half sessions today, well short of a full day’s play.

Only once amid those 14 instances has the team that was sent in and went on to dominate the ball with such proficiency found themselves the loser at match end – India when they were beaten by Shaun Pollock’s South Africa at Bloemfontein in 2001.

The team to have done it most recently was New Zealand, sent into bat by Sri Lanka at Dunedin two months ago and surging to a comfortable win, with eight of the same XI involved in this match.