Close New Zealand 293 for 7 (Fleming 105, Vincent 104, Gillespie 3 for 79)
Scorecard A compelling, unpredictable day at the WACA ended as expected, with Australia in control, but only after Lou Vincent, on his Test debut, and Stephen Fleming had rattled them with outstanding centuries.

Then came the second new ball, and a pumped-up Brett Lee and Jason Gillespie grabbed four wickets in the space of 20 balls to turn the match round completely. At the close New Zealand were 293 for 7 – not a bad score in itself, but a soul-destroying one given that they were 264 for 3 and hanging on grimly with only six overs left.

On a pitch which, by usual Perth standards, was bordering on the placid, the new ball was crucial. Only one wicket fell to the old ball, and that was via an imaginary edge as Vincent slashed and missed a big Shane Warne legbreak. If you're in on this pitch you can make it count, as Vincent and Fleming showed. Getting in is the problem.

New Zealand were in early trouble after losing Mark Richardson (9) and Mathew Sinclair (2) before they had got out of the blocks. Both fell essaying expansive, injudicious drives: Richardson missed a Gillespie offcutter that slammed into middle stump (12 for 1), and Sinclair was pretty adjacent to a delivery from Glenn McGrath that came back a long way (19 for 2).

McGrath then limped off with back spasms that kept him out of action until after tea, and Vincent and Fleming took full advantage. To the rest of the batsmen, the alien, trampoline Perth surface played like Wimbledon to a clay-court specialist, but Vincent, the first overseas batsman to make a debut ton at Perth, adapted superbly. A high right elbow underpinned a textbook defence, he was severe on anything short or wide, and after a nervous start he got his feet moving to counter the threat of Warne. All this from a man opening the batting for the first time in his first-class career, and against the world's best pace attack too.

Vincent went to fifty with two boundaries off Warne - excluding a plethora of West Indians, for whom Perth is home-from-home, it was the first fifty by an overseas opener on this ground for 15 years - and celebrated by taking on and clearing the man at fine leg when Lee dropped one short.

He eased nervelessly through the nineties, timing an attempted yorker from Gillespie to long-off for four and chopping Warne behind point before setting off on a bat-swishing, helmet-kissing celebration, the only time he lost the plot all day.

Vincent and Fleming added a virtually chanceless 199 for the third wicket before Vincent fell for 104 to a shocking decision - and a brilliant catch from Mark Waugh.

Warne tossed one higher and wider and Waugh took a brilliant two-handed catch to his left (218 for 3), but replays suggested the ball had almost certainly spun past the outside edge, with the sound of Vincent's bat raking across the turf being misconstrued as an edge by umpire Darrell Hair.

Vincent's performance took some of the gloss off a charming century from Fleming that had a romance all of its own. With 31 half-centuries and two hundreds before this match, Fleming had the reputation of one of Test cricket's worst converters, but from the first ball he exuded an authority that suggested he was in the mood to make his first century against Australia. He reached it off his 202nd delivery when he carted a Warne flipper unceremoniously over square leg for four.

But all the while Fleming was tiring and the pendulum was swinging slowly, inexorably back towards Australia. Lee trapped Fleming lbw for 105 with a full-pitch inswinger that would probably have hit leg stump (264 for 4), and five balls later Gillespie nailed Craig McMillan with a very similar delivery (269 for 5) for 4. It might have drifted down leg, but after a Bucknor-esque delay, umpire Ian Robinson brandished his finger with a flourish. The heat was on the Kiwis, and the good work of Vincent and Fleming was being clinically, ruthlessly undone.

It was 272 for 6 when the nightwatchman Daniel Vettori prodded limply at Gillespie and was beautifully taken by Damien Martyn in the gully for 2. Australia were rampant, and Lee iced the cake with an unplayable delivery that the dangerman Chris Cairns could only edge to Adam Gilchrist for 8 (281 for 7).

Vincent and Fleming aside, the only other New Zealander to reach double figures was Nathan Astle, and his unbeaten 71-ball 28 was a tortuous affair. It was scintillating stuff from the Australians, on a pitch tailor-made for their young, virile pace bowlers. Vincent and Fleming did brilliantly to deny them for as long as they did, but you wouldn't bet against Australia now.

Teams

Australia 1 Matthew Hayden, 2 Justin Langer, 3 Ricky Ponting, 4 Mark Waugh, 5 Steve Waugh (capt), 6 Damien Martyn, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Jason Gillespie, 11 Glenn McGrath

New Zealand 1 Mark Richardson, 2 Lou Vincent, 3 Mathew Sinclair, 4 Stephen Fleming (capt), 5 Nathan Astle, 6 Craig McMillan, 7 Chris Cairns, 8 Adam Parore (wk), 9 Daniel Vettori, 10 Shane Bond, 11 Chris Martin

Rob Smyth is on the staff of Wisden.com

Blow by Blow How the day unfolded: the long version

© Wisden CricInfo Ltd