Shambolic first Test run out exposes hole in New Zealand psyche

Wellington: Take a dash of Mark Waugh and Matthew Elliott’s collision, add a pinch of Lance Klusener and Allan Donald’s World Cup run out. Mix it with a healthy helping of New Zealand self-doubt, and you have the recipe for something truly shambolic.

That something is what befell Kane Williamson and the Black Caps at Basin Reserve, in a moment of madness so chaotic that his run out should be added to one of those internet lists of contemporary photographs that resemble Renaissance paintings.

Kane Williamson is run out by Marnus Labuschagne after a collision with Will Young.Credit: Fox Cricket

Longstanding questions about New Zealand’s cricket psyche against Australia were instantly revived. They hung around as the hosts’ first innings disintegrated for 179. Then Steve Smith dragged on for a duck, and Marnus Labuschagne glanced into the wicketkeeper’s gloves, but the overall lead was 217 by the close.

After Cameron Green’s monumental record 10th-wicket partnership with Josh Hazlewood took their first innings to a surprisingly robust 383, New Zealand were already on the back foot – more so when an indecisive Tom Latham jammed Mitchell Starc onto the stumps.

Perhaps because he wanted to get moving quickly, Williamson squeezed down on a full inswinger from Starc and set off for a run with the shot. Non-striker Will Young turned to watch the ball, was late to respond to Williamson’s call, and then both hared for the other end as they saw Marnus Labuschagne bearing down on the ball from mid-off.

But instead of using plentiful space between the wickets, Williamson and Young swerved directly into each other’s line: they also converged near Starc, unsighted in the vicinity as he too watched the ball.

The collision came, Young’s bat dropped to the ground, and a reeling Williamson resumed his pursuit of safety just as Labuschagne’s throw splayed the stumps. The Basin, bathed in idyllic March sunshine, had become a horror show.

Williamson, limping a little after the force of the contact with Young, walked off shaking his head and then looked back momentarily. It was almost as if to ask, “Did that really happen?” It did: more than 6000 spectators saw it.

Moments like these can be emblematic of a wider struggle. In 2010, Simon Katich was run out by Jonathan Trott in the first over of an Ashes Test, foreshadowing a hefty match and series defeat for Australia.

Six years later, Callum Ferguson’s sole Test was characterised by his own horrid run out, as his brother threw his hat on the ground in the stands in sheer frustration. Australia’s stranglehold of this match, after they had slipped to 6-176 on day one, left past players on both sides to wonder at the bigger factors at play.

“I think it is the big brother/little brother scenario,” former opener Mark Richardson said on TVNZ. “I think we respect Australian cricket, we know how good it is, but it’s that rivalry where you desperately want to do well, and there’s an element of pedestaling and an element of intimidation.

Daryl Mitchell throws his head back after being caught behind for 11.Credit: photosport.nz

“Maybe if people are going to be really honest with themselves, just a little bit of lack of belief as well. Those things happen when you’re being smothered, and you’re backed into a corner, and a side is all over you.

“You look at really good English sides who’ve come to New Zealand, really good Indian sides who have probably recently had really good records against Australia and beaten Australia. We will look them in the eye and compete against them, and do some great stuff. Then Australia will come here and we just always seem to take a backward step.”

More backward steps followed Williamson’s. Rachin Ravindra drove loosely at Hazlewood and sliced to backward point. Daryl Mitchell pulled a boundary, noted the placement of a deep square leg next ball, and duly edged Pat Cummins as he tried to find a gap on the off side. And Young finished a dispiriting day by tickling Mitch Marsh down the leg side.

At 5-29 a tally of 42, matching New Zealand’s lowest Test total against Australia, looked possible. But with such a yawning gap between the teams, Glenn Phillips (71) and Tom Blundell found enough room to counterpunch in a stand worth 84 in 86 balls.

Just when they were getting established, however, Nathan Lyon (4-43) had a say. Blundell succumbed to bat pad, and then two balls later Scott Kuggeleijn clipped brainlessly to deep midwicket.

As he had done with the ball, Matt Henry showed rather more presence of mind in his own attack on Lyon, and fashioned another impish stand with Phillips before the innings petered out. Bowling again, a couple of wickets gave New Zealand some faint hope.

But when nightwatcher Lyon edged Henry’s last ball of the day straight to Southee, the captain put it down. Southee’s glum expression recalled Williamson’s after his cataclysmic exit, and the psychological hole the day exposed.

News, results and expert analysis from the weekend of sport sent every Monday. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.