Smith was fined 30 percent of his match fee late last night for dissent over his involvement in the Josh Hazlewood incident, when both Australians expressed their anger over the denial of an lbw appeal against Kane Williamson just before lunch on day three of the second test at Hagley Oval.
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Off-spinner Mark Craig was hit out of the side by Australia’s batsmen, with two wickets for 153 runs in the first test at Wellington’s Basin Reserve. “They’re ready for a new leader and a slightly new direction”.
Voges and Smith then opted to see out victory after the break.
“The top five of Australia outplayed us”, Hesson said.
Australia went past India in ICC Test rankings folllowing the Test series win against New Zealand.
New Zealand coach Mike Hesson says a 0-4 Test record across the summer against Australia hurts but believes the teams are separated by inches rather than miles.
“We’ve achieved some pretty cool things and, hey, we’ve lost one or two games as well”.
That was Guptill’s only score above 50 in his last 14 Test innings. Martin still hasn’t quite nailed it at test level but again we think he has some good qualities. The opener was unstoppable in limited overs matches at home but in four test innings against Australia scored 81 runs at 20.25.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum heaped praised on his team-mates after leaving the worldwide cricket arena for the last time.
The series sweep put Australia ahead of India at the top of the world rankings to claim the US1 million prize for the number one side at the end of the cricket year.
McCullum’s century in Christchurch was the only century by a New Zealand batsman in its four innings in the series.
He also holds the record for the most consecutive Tests, never missing a game since his career began in 2004, and he is New Zealand’s second most successful captain with a winning percentage of 35.48, behind Geoff Howarth’s 36.66.
By comparison Voges (239 and 60), Burns (170 and 65), Khawaja (140) and Smith (138, 71 and 53 not out) all made substantial scores for Australia.
Josh Hazlewood has assumed the pace spearhead role, while James Pattinson produced a fiery performance in Christchurch after battling shin soreness and Jackson Bird took his first five-wicket haul after returning from a lengthy absence.
Should the selectors decide to grant more opportunities to Wagner and Henry in New Zealand’s upcoming Test campaigns, it could mean something of a changing of the guard, with the attack having been based around Southee and Boult for some time.
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Australia resumed the final day on 70-1, requiring 131 more runs to win and with Joe Burns (27) and Usman Khawaja (19) at the crease.
