Cherubic Green finds his ruthless streak

With Australia in trouble, Cameron Green shrugged off his polite ways and produced a domineering innings to rescue his team.

There’s this uniquely idyllic charm to watching Test cricket in New Zealand. There is of course the overall loveliness of just how pretty and scenic the venues are, which the Basin Reserve in particular oozes.

It’s in the acoustics too though. It’s loud but never noisy. The audience is excitable but never raucous. The home fans are partisan but never rowdy.

Even the sound of ball coming off bat sounds a tad polite.

Add in the classical nature of the grandstands, the wooden benches, the light towers which still look like sentry posts, the cricket museum that is always full and the fact that you’ll still find plenty of traditional transistors in use on the grass-banks.

In many ways, this was the most apt setting for Cameron Green to produce his coming-of-age Test knock. The best of his Test career to boot. A lovely young man playing a beautiful knock at one of the pretties venues in the world. For, there is an old-school charm to the towering Western Australian that’s unmistakeable. To a fault even.

The puppy face on his giant frame is not a disguise. It’s a vivid glimpse into who he is and how he carries himself. The guy who starts every answer at a press conference with a very reverential “yeah” or “100 per cent”, like he’s as keen on acknowledging the veracity of the question as he is in delivering his response.

Cameron Green played with the freedom that he often shows in the Sheffield Shield Picture: AFP

The diligent batter who’s still sheepish at times about asking the coaches for some extra throwdowns during practice. And always thanks you profusely for even the slightest bit of assistance during a nets session.

The IPL star who a couple of summers ago was reliant on Alex Carey to side with him while being needled in jest by a couple of senior teammates for his massive deal at the auction.

The talented cricketer who every senior member of the team wants to play big brother to. The self-conscious youngster who’d been embarrassed for going overboard, in his own head that is, while celebrating his first Test wicket.

Earlier this week at the official reception for the Australian team at Premier House in Wellington, a couple of senior players were ready to leave as soon as most of the formalities were done.

Green, though still tired from his trans-Tasman trip, wouldn’t join them. He’d been told by team officials that you couldn’t leave till the New Zealand Prime Minister, the host, had left. And he was going to abide by the protocols and stay put.

Ironically, the one criticism levelled at Cameron Green the Test batter is that he has been too polite. Too pleasant at the crease. That he hasn’t imposed himself. That he hasn’t taken the game by the scruff of the neck.

That he hasn’t been able to transfer the ruthlessness from his Sheffield Shield performances to the highest level.

And then he did, when it mattered most. The 24-year-old couldn’t have asked for a trickier position or scenario to walk into.

Marnus Labuschagne had been nicked off yet again. Matt Henry was having his best day out ever against Australia, highlighting it with an exceptional delivery to knock over Usman Khawaja.

Cameron Green celebrates his century with a roar Picture: Getty Images

The all-rounder acknowledges the crowd’s applause Picture; AFP

Then Travis Head had come and gone. All while Green was still trying to get a measure of the surface and the conditions.

Number four, they’d all said was his ideal position in Test cricket. And Australia desperately needed the kind of knock number fours have historically been known for.

Soak the pressure and then put it back on the bowling attack.

Exactly what Green delivered. It started with seeing off Henry. Then seeing off Tim Southee. Mitchell Marsh’s explosiveness at the other end did help in allowing him time to find his second gear.

In the lead-up to the match, Green had spent a lot of time trying to stay beside the line of the ball, rather than indulge in the elaborate back and across movement, a trigger you see batters use a lot in New Zealand.

It meant that his head was in the best alignment it’s been with the rest of his body for a while in Test cricket. Technique, check. Now it was time for him to find some tempo.

And it’s here that his maturity really shone through.

The feet were no longer conservative in movement. The hands were no longer lacking commitment, and the boundaries started to flow.

He was accessing the ball exactly the way he wanted to, off both front and back foot.

The New Zealanders bowled full, he drove down the ground, the on-drive in particular symptomatic of his balance at the crease. They bowled short and he swung his shoulders around and pummelled deliveries to the on-side boundaries. Wickets kept falling at the other end, not adding to his challenge. But it only seemed to push him to be more positive.

The Basin Reserve is a hark bark to cricket’s more traditional days Picture: Getty Images

This was Cameron Green bossing the game at the Test level the way he seemed destined to do from the time he broke on to the scene with Western Australia in Sheffield Shield.

Late in the day when Southee took the new-ball, he took a giant stride across his stumps and whipped a length delivery through mid-wicket for four.

Two days prior, he’d practised the upper cut a few times over in the nets. In previous innings, he might have held it off in the middle. But here he went for it with the first opportunity he got.

He sped through the 80s and so too the 90s, getting to the magical mark in the final over of the day. Smith was the first teammate to his feet, having made the way down to the dugout.

The rest of the team rose too. Green just stood with his arms aloft after punching the air, having got there with a ruthless display of hitting followed by a lovely smile. He’d found the perfect blend, finally at the Test level.

Not that he was any different when asked to talk about his knock. Every answer still started with a “yeah” or a “100 per cent”. He’s not done yet, and will return to the crease to potentially be even more ruthless.

The Basin Reserve will be ready, charming and lovely as ever.