Yes I was at the Basin today. What I saw was only just worth braving the wind and mist for, with Wellington bowling and catching poorly to let two compact, no-frills batsman dominate the afternoon.
McCullum seemed convinced a good innings could still influence his test prospects, mixing a gorgeous straight-drive with some streaky cross-bat shots. He gave a diving left-hand chance on the third man rope, but after Penn caught him in the groin twice (the 2nd a rather nasty-looking hook that he chopped into his cods, keeping him down for a couple of minutes), he played a rash shot and had his middle stump removed.
Fleming then claimed a sharp low-down catch to dismiss Fulton, but grassed 2 others to add to the 5 Wellington failed to pouch in the 4 hours I was there. He put in what only looked like token chases to anything that went past the cordon, but they don't call him 'Donk' for no reason!
Then Stead and Papps came together and sucked the life out of the medium-pacers and the innocuous off-spin from Patel. Stead came out and used the wind to his advantage in lofting over the top, then gladly milked them as the field spread. Papps has a straight, set-hinged backlift and shuffles across his stumps as the bowler hits the crease, similar to a Matthew Bell or Andrew Jones. He wasn't what I'd call stylish, but it was good to see a young Canterbury prude succeed against an attack still expecting pitch assistance and slutty batsmanship. "Mummy, don't these trundlers realise I've been on flat wickets down at the Academy since October?" and so on.
Cheers,
Kent.
