Birthday boy Martin savours bowlers' pitch
HOBART, Australia, Dec 10, (AFP) - Journeyman New Zealand paceman
Chris Martin got the perfect birthday gift on Saturday with a
bowler-friendly Hobart pitch to help rout Australia for 136 in the
second Test.
Martin celebrated his 37th birthday with three for 46 as the Black
Caps took a 14-run first innings buffer and swelled it to 153 with seven
second innings wickets intact after the second day's play at Bellerive
Oval.
It has been a Test match for the bowlers so far, with 23 wickets
tumbling in just two days and batsmen finding it hard to score runs on a
drying greentop pitch.
Martin is savouring the Bellerive wicket and said he would like to
bundle it up and take it with him around the world's other Test cricket
venues. "It's been a long time to have a pitch like this one in a Test
match," said the 64-Test veteran.
"If you look around the world there's not too much variety in
pitches. A day's Test cricket like that definitely makes people watch.
"I've toured places like India and the subcontinent and it's always
been a really tough long day with plenty of runs, but if you're a
connoisseur of swing, seam bowling, then today's really an enjoyable
day's cricket." Australian paceman James Pattinson on Friday derided New
Zealand's first innings of 150 batting first on the Bellerive minefield
as "under par" but the home side could not better it as they fell 14
runs short. "I suppose 150 on that pitch on the first day has turned out
to be a reasonable score," Martin said.
"It's quite difficult to say how the rest of the Test match will go
but with 150 runs in front we're feeling pretty good, I don't know how
many runs will be needed." Martin said the Black Caps were hurting after
their nine-wicket surrender to Australia in the first Test in Brisbane
last weekend and were desperate to redeem themselves in Hobart.
"Any time you roll Australia for under 150 I think you've felt like
you've had a good day," he said.
"But to put it in perspective, for us to bounce back after the way we
played in Brisbane would be massive for us and I think that's been a key
focus for us in this game, just to show that we're not as poor as we
showed in Brisbane.
|