Hobart Test, Day 1, Lunch
Thursday, November 22, 2001

New Zealand have been really ordinary in this session - dreadful is the word that springs to mind actually. Their bowlers have been nervous, their fielders have been anxious, and throughout they've been hoping for a breakthrough rather than trying to make one happen. That type of attitude is fatal, and this partnership has really made them pay.

When that catch [off Langer] went down in the second over, it took us in the commentary box a while to realise what had happened. There was barely a reaction from the fielders, none of the emotion you'd have seen from the Australian fielders if that had happened to them so early on in a game. There has been a serious lack of passion out there in the middle.

The bowlers have done nothing to deserve a wicket. They've bowled short, they've bowled too full, they've been too scared to put the ball in the right place. At Brisbane it took them four hours to learn, and then they took six wickets in a session, so I guess they'll be hoping to get it right after just two hours this time!

If you are going to bowl short in Test cricket, you have to make sure it is really short, head-high, not midriff-high. Tuffey has been the nearest to OK - he's tried to pitch it up and invite a bit of swing. The rest have just put it on a plate for Justin Langer.

Matthew Hayden will have felt a bit ordinary out there, stuck on 1 while his partner raced to 50. But he'll have settled down by now, and to go to lunch on 38 not out, out of a stand of 126 - that's a good morning's work. He would have had a spell of 15 to 20 minutes wondering what he was doing wrong, but credit to him, he was content to concentrate on his defence, and it's paying dividends now.

Steve Waugh had a bit of confusion at the toss. They used a commemorative coin, with the Queen's head on one side, and Don Bradman's on the other, and so he couldn't tell whether he had won or lost. But in the end it didn't matter. In retrospect Stephen Fleming's decision to bowl was the wrong one, but his bowlers were so listless, and the field-placings so ordinary that New Zealand couldn't really have done any better.

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 Andrew Miller.

More Ian Healy
Brisbane, Day 5, Close: What a finish
Day 5, Tea: Now we've got a game

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