Australia wallop New Zealand to win series

Australia wrapped up a 2-0 series win after rain saved New Zealand in the second test. Australia chased down the target of 164 with ridiculous ease, with Langer and Ponting making merry. Ponting came in after Hayden was out with the score on 18 and when the game ended, he had scored 82 to Langer's 59. New Zealand paid the price for two mistakes: batting too slowly in the first innings and not batting long enough in their second. They scored at 2.5 an over first time around and in their second attempt, they only batted for 70 overs. Of course, when you have to face the likes of McGrath and Warne assisted by predatorial fielders, you're bound to make mistakes. The problem is that New Zealand have not learnt from their mistakes.

McGrath had 7 wickets in the game conceding 89 runs in 50 overs while the tail folded up tamely to Warne's wiles. The top order wasted starts in the first innings. When they bowled, they did quite well but once Ponting decided to up the ante, they faltered. It was also plainly obvious that Gilchrist had already scared the daylights out of them in his He came in at 6/297 and took Australia to 383. Those runs came in just 20 overs. Until then, New Zealand had done very well with the ball with Australia only scoring at three an over.

When they batted the second time, New Zealand lost their top order before the scorers had taken control of their pencils. Some lusty hitting from Vincent and Astle threatened to set Australia a challenging total but their partnership did not last long enough. Vettori batted very well for the second time in the game to ensure that Australia were not humiliated by having to send out Langer and Hayden to score three runs to win, or something like that.

Glenn McGrath is stuck on 499 test wickets now and must be smacking his lips in anticipation of #500. The juggernaut is in pretty decent form, eh?