Black Caps spin off course as McIntyre adds insult to injury

As a veteran leg spinner enjoyed one of the finest days of his career, so New Zealand's cricketers experienced arguably the most disappointing of their current tour of Australia. Undone by a captivating display of bowling from Peter McIntyre, the Black Caps tumbled to a 17-run defeat at the hands of South Australia at the Adelaide Oval today.

Inspired by another superb exhibition of left arm spin bowling from Daniel Vettori (6/80), the tourists had looked on course to claim their first victory on Australian soil this summer for long periods of the final day of this match. But a tentative batting effort on a difficult pitch led to their demise as they pursued a target of just 196 to win.

Against the background of news that injured left arm paceman Shayne O'Connor will be returning home tomorrow, it was a sad way for the Kiwis to end four days of spirited, competitive cricket.

It was in McIntyre (6/75), meanwhile, that a jubilant South Australian team found its destroyer-in-chief.

The 35-year old is not a regular in the Redbacks' team these days toward the end of a career that yielded an early switch of states and brought two Test appearances for Australia in the mid-1990s. Yet that small matter didn't stop him from confounding his rivals' top and middle order with ripping leg breaks, top spinners and flippers on a wearing surface that added to the challenges confronting the batsmen.

It might be argued that the only one among the first seven New Zealand wickets that didn't fall to him - the freakish run out of Matthew Bell (29) - actually represented the chief turning point on the final day. But any attempt to detract from McIntyre's influence over events would be seriously misguided.

Mark Richardson (8) sparred at a delivery down the leg side to be brilliantly caught by wicketkeeper Graham Manou, though he looked unlucky because his shot must have attracted no more than the thinnest of edges. Mathew Sinclair (14) played outside the line of a modestly-turning ball to lose his off bail. Lou Vincent (0) was trapped in front of his stumps; Craig McMillan (32) succumbed to a sharp catch at a fine gully; Adam Parore (24) edged a wide delivery off the toe end of the bat to slip; and, Vettori (0) seemed to lose his bearings as he padded away a ball turning back in toward him.

It was quite a catalogue of success.

Bell, for his part, might have been another McIntyre victim too after he came well forward of his crease to push a delivery off bat and pad to David Fitzgerald at silly mid off. But an extraordinary piece of nous from a juggling Fitzgerald saw him opt to expertly palm the ball into the stumps instead - with a perplexed batsman unable to successfully scramble back to regain his ground.

McMillan, Parore and Glen Sulzberger (41) had kept New Zealand's hopes alive by constructing brave innings in the circumstances, defying the attack with intelligent sweeping, cutting and paddling of the few loose deliveries that came along.

Instructively, it was Sulzberger's dismissal, at the head of a series of three late wickets that culminated in a brilliant direct-hit run out from square leg from Mike Smith (2/31), that proved the straw that finally broke his side's back.

Earlier, the hosts had themselves been unravelled by a classy exhibition of left arm spin bowling from Vettori, tumbling from their overnight score of 4/130 to a final mark of 212 in the shadows of lunch.

Vettori took the game to the trenches with accuracy and appreciable turn on the helpful surface, leaving a defensively-minded Redbacks line-up with little option but to follow him there. Attacking him proved an even harder task than keeping him out: Smith (15) falling as he top-edged a premeditated slog-sweep; Manou (17) lobbing a forceful but mistimed drive to mid off; and Mark Harrity (10) depositing a stroke into the hands of Chris Martin at a wide long on position. Paul Rofe (0), padding up, was the only one to lose out through caution.

The wickets of Ben Higgins (11) - out to a top-edged hook at Daryl Tuffey (1/21) - and Brad Young (15), who succumbed to a brilliant catch down the leg side from Parore, were the only ones among the six that fell in the opening session in which Vettori did not have a hand.

Though O'Connor's continuing run of bad luck means that Tuffey and Shane Bond will be the likely new faces in the tourists' eleven for the Second Test in Hobart starting on Thursday, the Black Caps may well be hoping that the pitch there also yields to spin. If nothing else, they will be as well prepared for a viciously turning surface as any other kind that may be in store.