Brisbane Test, Day 5, Lunch
Monday, November 12, 2001

I'm really surprised that Stephen Fleming has declared. I wouldn't have thought he'd want to bowl for too long, what with the injuries to Dion Nash and Shayne O'Connor. They saved the follow-on, so they could have batted on and made sure of going into the next Test 0-0 which I'd thought they'd be very happy with. A Test match at this stage should peter out to a draw, so it's a strange one from Fleming.

It was a great innings from Chris Cairns but then he played a very Cairns-type shot to get out. That's how I know Chris Cairns – he has the ability to be a world-class allrounder but then he goes and plays a shot like that. The Australian close-in fielders would have been chatting away at him out there, telling each other that he'd do something stupid any minute – and he obliged! It was just bad shot selection.

Glenn McGrath has a bit of work to do. It was just a 25-over practice bowling run for him out there this morning. He's the type of player who thrives on having a lot of overs behind him, and he just looks rather underbowled at the moment. But now the international season has started and he's back under the microscope, he'll get going.

Interesting that Steve Waugh gave Brett Lee the second new ball alongside McGrath. That's a sign that the guys out there think he's going great. He's bowled a good spell this morning and shown some smart thinking – like using his slightly slower ball to get rid of Cairns. It's been a good match for Brett.

It's a big blow to New Zealand that Dion Nash is going home. He's the best athlete in their team. But then it's no good being a great athlete if you're injured all the time and can't play. They'd have been banking on him backing up Cairns with the ball in this series. Mind you, Daniel Vettori was injured and flew home – and he was back in Australia the following week, so you never know.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing on Wisden.com at the end of every session in the series. He was talking to Camilla Rossiter.

More Ian Healy
Day 4, Tea: A battle in Brisbane
Day 4, Lunch: Pick of the quicks

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