Traditional rivals Australia and New Zealand will face each other at the Adelaide Oval in a revolutionary cricket match which starts on Friday afternoon and is set to span five days and nights.
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Any fears that might prompt a clatter of wickets in the foreign conditions were proved unfounded as Australia settled thereafter, losing only Joe Burns when he was bowled by Doug Bracewell off an inside edge.
The use of a pink ball and playing into the evening under lights made front-page news in Australia and former professionals were quick to back the idea on Twitter.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum won the toss and elected to bat first against Australia in the first ever day-night cricket test Friday.
“I think for cricket in general it would have been supported well here and it would have been on TV all over the world”. I feel for the many people around the country being told they were watching this historic Test in HD who were really watching it in standard definition because Nine only rolled it out to half the country.
“Batting-wise I probably haven’t been at my best in this series and I feel as if I can get past those first 20 balls then you can make an impact”, he said.
So what about the day’s play in this historic Test match?
“As the sun is going down, and coming through the stands, it’s definitely the hardest part”. A little bit of sideways movement off the deck.
Australia replaced the retired Mitchell Johnson with Peter Siddle while Shaun Marsh took the place of an injured Usman Khawaja while New Zealand brought in debutant Mitchell Santner for Matt Henry. “This enhances the brightness of the ball although some say also encourages early swing”, Elliot said. “We came over here to win the series, but that now is off the table but we can certainly leave with a lot of respect and a drawn series which would be a very good achievement against a new and emerging Australian side”. “That’s the focus. It’d be a huge blow for him, he’d be pretty disappointed and it’s never nice to see that happen”, Black Caps bowler Trent Boult said.
Australia’s batsmen had 22 overs to encounter under the lights and they got off to a poor start when Warner was caught by Tim Southee at first slip off Trent Boult (1-15), passed fit after being a doubt due to a back injury.
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For Australia, Hazlewood and Starc picked up three wickets while Siddle and Lyon accounted for two apiece.
