MacGill torments Kiwi's

New South Wales leg spinner Stuart MacGill has done his prospects of a test recall no harm as New South Wales close in on victory against the touring New Zealanders.

The home side resumed at 8-278 and failed to add substantially to that score as allrounder Jacob Oram claimed the wickets of tailenders MacGill and Brett Lee to dismiss New South Wales for 286, a lead of 73 runs.

The tourists began their second innings in encouraging fashion, openers Mark Richardson and Matthew Sinclair both spending valuable time in the middle ahead of Thursdays first test against Australia, the pair sharing a 110 run stand until Richardson became the first of MacGill’s victims attempting an ambitious swipe over midwicket.

Test hopeful Hamish Marshall failed to impress, falling to MacGill for a duck while Matthew Sinclair fell to paceman Matthew Nicholson for a composed 79, his second half century of the match.

The remainder of the New Zealand batting lineup failed to capitalize on their last opportunity to impress before the first test, Craig Mcmillan contributing a scratchy 17 before loosing his off stump to Nicholson and acting captain Scott Styris falling leg before to rookie off spinner Jason Krezja for 18.
Oram fell leg before to the same bowler while the lower order were tormented by the combination of MacGill and Brett Lee.

Lee bowled with impressive pace, dismissing James Franklin and Ian Butler to finish with figures of 2-37 and 5-89 for the match, test selectors will no doubt be impressed by his progress.
MacGill meanwhile finished with 4-52 and match figures of 8-109, ensuring that the selectors will have difficulty overlooking him should they choose to complement Shane Warne with a second spinner in the Adelaide test match.

New Zealand were bowled out for 201, setting the home side a modest 129 for victory, they cruised to 0-25 at stumps.




Posted by DavidH