Head's second Test ton, late strikes put Aussies on top

Days after his place within Australia's Test line-up was deemed to be in doubt, Travis Head produced an innings of such timeliness and temperament that he might now enjoy the security of tenure he has battled too hard to earn.

Head's 114 was the stand-out hand as well as the backbone of Australia's grinding first innings of 467 that appears even more imposing after New Zealand ended day two 2-44 and a hefty 424 in arrears.

Crucially, those late casualties included Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson (9) whose already forgettable Test was further blighted when he aimed an ill-advised pull shot at a short ball from James Pattinson and Tim Paine completed a neatly judged catch running back more than 20 metres.

Pattinson, playing his first Boxing Day Test before his doting home crowd in four years, thought he'd claimed NZ's next-best batter Ross Taylor in his following over, only for what appeared to be a stone-cold lbw decision to be overturned by Taylor's shrewd call for a review.

However, the talking point to dominate post-match discussion among the crowd of 59,676 – a day two record for a non-Ashes Test at the MCG – was Head's hundred that doubtless ensures he will more fully enjoy his 26th birthday on Sunday.

The Test vice-captain had found himself once more in the cross-hairs of critics after he succumbed to a couple of soft dismissals in the opening Domain Test in Perth earlier this month, and was being touted as a possible exclusion for the current Boxing Day match.

That was when Australia – unsure of the pitch that awaited at the MCG and eyeing the tight turnaround ahead before the third Test in Sydney – aired the prospect of playing five specialist bowlers to ease the workload on their specialist quicks.

As it turned out, the sight of a green-tinged MCG wicket convinced selectors to bolster the batting and Head responded with the sort of mature knock he has long threatened to compile but too often surrendered between scores of 50 and 100.

Just as his recall to the Test team (after being dropped for the final Ashes Test at The Oval last September) was predicated on the patient century he scored against an international-strength NSW Sheffield Shield attack earlier in the summer, Head's innings today was often more noteworthy for what it did not contain.

Gone were the speculative drives and high-risk horizontal-bat strokes that bowlers have preyed upon, replaced by solid defence and studied leaving of deliveries that might bring about his downfall.

And while Head's other Test ton – against Sri Lanka at Canberra last February - has carried the caveat of coming against a club-standard opposition on a flat batting track, today's was forged on a pitch that saw his lesser-performing teammates struggle throughout their respective innings.

Plus it was taken from a rival bowling line-up that has performed so well of late that New Zealand came into this three-match Domain Series as the second-ranked Test team in the world.

Head found strong support and wise counsel from his senior partners Steve Smith (85) and Tim Paine (79) throughout his five-and-a-half-hour stay in which he negotiated 234 balls – the longest of his 16-match Test career to date.

But the fact he was able to find a way through the nagging into-the-body bowling of NZ's pace attack, once again led by the indefatigable Neil Wagner (4-83) and the canny field placings employed to frustrate the natural stroke-maker into error, will long stand as a testament to the left-hander's capability.

When he and Smith resumed on Friday morning with Australia 4-257, it was widely assumed it would be the latter – unbeaten on 77 after a tough first day – who was destined to celebrate a milestone in front of more than 50,000 fans.

However, the fluency that Smith had fought so hard to find on Boxing Day as the Black Caps continued their so-called 'Bodyline' bouncer barrage deserted him after he consummately drove Trent Boult's opening delivery of day two within centimetres of the extra-cover boundary.

Over the next hour and a bit, the world's second-ranked Test batter laboured to score a further five runs as NZ re-calibrated their already fine-tuned bowling plans and relentlessly targeted the former captain's upper body.

By shifting their attack to around-the-wicket, Boult and his new-ball partner Tim Southee deprived Smith of any width and the increasingly frustrated Australian – who had strategically shelved his pull shot to preserve his wicket – began to take blows upon his person.

The most frightening of those was a bumper from Wagner that followed Smith across the crease and led him to instinctively protect his face as the ball thudded into his right forearm.

Four overs later, Wagner produced a similar rearing delivery that smacked into the handle of Smith's bat and seemed destined to elude Henry Nicholls at gully until the acrobatic fielder half-turned in mid-air and threw out one hand into which the ball somehow stuck like a stuffed toy in a claw machine.

Having snared the breakthrough they sought with Australia still yet to pass 300, the Black Caps turned the heat on Paine who has shown a propensity bordering on compulsion to combat short-pitched bowling with repeated pull shots – often hit in the air.

But rather than fodder, Paine became an agitator as he not only launched the counter-attack that Smith had battled to muster but effectively thumbed his nose at the Kiwi tactics by batting outside his crease and occasionally advancing down the pitch.

The ploy seemed to mess with the tourists' otherwise immaculate lengths, and he was able to find boundaries aplenty as he raced to 31 in his 50-run partnership with Head, and then a half-century from just 72 balls faced.

His job, and that of Head's, became easier immediately after lunch when Williamson decided to resume his team's attack with reserve keeper Tom Blundell, an off-spinner of such little repute he has sent down just nine overs and boasts a single wicket in his six-year, 55-game first-class career thus far.

Still, for his three overs today Blundell did not appear any less likely to make a breakthrough than did NZ's specialist spinner, left-armer Mitchell Santner, whose place for the upcoming Sydney Test must be in question after he returned 0-82 from 20 uninspired overs in Australia's innings.

In such control did the Australia captain appear, he seemed destined for the Test century that has eluded him since making his debut almost a decade ago, and would conceivably reach triple figures before his more credentialled batting partner to whom he had gifted a 38-run head start.

But Paine – who seemed to suffer from discomfort in his left hamstring and on a couple of occasions called for the team physiotherapist who provided him with vials of the preferred anti-cramping agent, pickle juice – eventually succumbed on 79.

Not that he seemed altogether convinced with the circumstances of his dismissal, which came when struck on the pads by a ball from Wagner that swung violently into him from around the wicket and which on-field umpire Marais Erasmus did not believe was hitting the stumps.

Almost as an afterthought, Williamson acceded to Wagner's call for the decision to be reviewed, with the evidence suggesting the ball would have struck Paine's leg stump and caused the bemused skipper to seek clarification from Erasmus as he left the field to a rousing ovation.

No sooner had the applause dimmed than the crowd were on their feet again, cheering Head's century that arrived with the sort of shot he had shelved for most of his occupation – a sliced drive that flew the vacated gully to deep backward point for four – and elicited a roar of delight from the vice-captain.

It also heralded a rapid tail-end collapse as Australia sought quick runs after the tea adjournment, in a bid to break the sleeper hold applied to them by NZ's bowlers for the best part of five sessions.

Australia's final five wickets fell for 33 runs in seven overs, which left NZ's top-order with 22 overs to negotiate against a new-ball and a fresh battery of fast bowlers.

Even allowing for the placid MCG pitch that has provided few surprises despite the mat of green grass running stump-to-stump down its centre, that assignment is unlikely to become much easier upon resumption on Saturday.

Australia XI: David Warner, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c, wk), Pat Cummins, James Pattinson, Mitchell Starc, Nathan Lyon

New Zealand XI: Tom Latham, Tom Blundell, Kane Williamson (c), Ross Taylor, Henry Nicholls, BJ Watling (wk), Colin de Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Trent Boult. 

Domain Test Series v New Zealand

Australia squad: David Warner, Joe Burns, Marnus Labuschagne, Steve Smith, Matthew Wade, Travis Head, Tim Paine (c, wk), Pat Cummins, Mitch Starc, Nathan Lyon, James Pattinson, Michael Neser, Mitchell Swepson

New Zealand: Todd Astle, Tom Blundell, Trent Boult, Colin de Grandhomme, Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Jeet Raval, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor, BJ Watling, Neil Wagner, Kane Williamson (c)

First Test: Australia won by 296 runs in Perth

Second Test: December 26-30, MCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)

Third Test: January 3-7, SCG (Seven, Fox & Kayo)