Black Caps after MCG payback after controversial 1987 draw

Payback should be a driving force for New Zealand players in the first Boxing Day Test for the Kiwis since a 1987 draw.

Mike Whitney and Craig McDermott, right, walk off after securing a draw for Australia against New Zealand at the MCG in 1987.

Payback should be a driving force for New Zealand players in the first Boxing Day Test for the Kiwis since a 1987 draw that former wicketkeeper Ian Smith says his team should have won.

The Black Caps haven’t been invited back to the MCG for a Test match since that dramatic finish when Australian tailenders Mike Whitney and Craig McDermott blocked out the final overs to deny the tourists a famous win.

Smith said to this day he was still “bitter” about the result because of a controversial not out decision when Kiwi quick Danny Morrison looked to have McDermott lbw with just eight balls remaining in the match.

It was a result that came in the years after the infamous underarm delivery from Trevor Chappell in a one-day game, and continued a relationship with the MCG that Smith said was “not that flash”.

“I’d thought we’d won it. Television replays will perhaps show we should have as well,” Smith, in Australia as a Fox Sports commentator, said of the 1987 result.

“I think we were done there, so there’s a bit of bitterness there.

“New Zealand cricket’s relationship with the MCG has not been that flash if you go back even before that through the ’80s, the underarm game of course, that Boxing Day Test match.

“We’ve got a bit of payback coming, hopefully, this time around.”

None of the current New Zealand side has ever played a Test on the MCG and Smith said the players would have to get over the “wow factor”.

A massive crowd is expected on Boxing Day with thousands of Kiwis set to flock to Melbourne for the match. “I have never known in my life a level of interest in one game, in New Zealand, as this Boxing Day Test is going to be,” Smith said.

“Thousands upon thousands of Kiwis are coming over.

“None of these guys has played Test cricket on any of the venues this series. That’s very rare. The wow factor is something they are going to have to get over very quick … it can be overpowering.”

But Smith said despite the loss in the first Test in Perth, and with the expected inclusion of pace spearhead Trent Boult, this New Zealand side was as prepared as any could be to take down the Australians.

“I think they are prepared to take Australia on and fight fire with fire,” he said.

The cancellation of Friday’s bowling day in a Boxing Day warm-up match could be a blessing in disguise for New Zealand players still recovering from a huge workload in the opening Test.

A forecast 43C was enough for Black Caps coach Gary Stead to pull the pin on plans to pit his bowlers, who sent down 215 overs in the heat last week, against a Victorian XI.

They will instead get the overs they need in a Saturday session at the MCG that Stead said could work in their favour with many still feeling the effects of the first Test.

“It’s hard to underestimate the effect the Perth Test had on us,” Stead said. “Having that extra day off shouldn’t do any harm at all.”

Stead said there was also a “danger element” involved in playing on Friday, but his batsmen will get their chance to play on Sunday when the game resumes as per the original plan.

HERALD SUN