Sydney Test, Day 1, Tea
Wednesday, January 2, 2002

That was an awesome batting display - just brilliant batting from Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer. Some of the shots they have played made it look way too easy.

They've mixed singles with boundaries. They both had times in and out of scoring freely, and worked through those periods. They've used their feet to the spinners and never let them settle down.

It looks like Jacques Kallis and Allan Donald are the wrong pace for this pitch, as it is at the moment anyway. It's coming on to the bat pretty nicely, and both batsmen have looked very comfortable.

I like the spinners bowling together. Both Henderson and Boje have bowled well. But the breeze probably doesn't suit bowling them together at the moment.

Pollock has to try something ... anything.

The danger is that the mind drifts. You saw that with Mark Boucher. Boje drew the nick from Langer - it was a tough one with the batsman on the front foot driving. Boucher just wasn't quick enough.

It gets like that when the ball hasn't come to you too much. Everyone's thinking "What can we do to pick up a wicket." It's easy to forget what you're actually doing when you start to think like that.

Ian Healy made a record 395 dismissals in 119 Tests for Australia. His comments will be appearing exclusively on Wisden.com after each session in this series. He was talking to Tim Stoney.

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