Blewett dominates before Vettori stings Black Caps into action

The Redbacks and the Black Caps sound more like families of insects than sporting teams. Fitting then that, as the home side reached a score of 8/281 by stumps, there consistently remained a sting in the contest as South Australia and New Zealand opened their tour match at the Adelaide Oval today.

With an expertly compiled century, the quick clatter of wickets, sizeable partnerships at either end of the day, and contrasting individual performances, this was the quintessential example of a day of fluctuating fortunes.

Last week, South Australia scored 5/589 in a Pura Cup fixture against Tasmania, and two of its number - Darren Lehmann and Greg Blewett - shared a record-breaking association of 386 along the way. That was on a more capricious pitch, and the Kiwis might well have had grounds in mid-afternoon for believing that their bowlers were set to suffer a similar fate today. Especially as they had already experienced a horrible sense of déjà vu as an extraordinarily close lbw decision against Shane Deitz (4) was turned down from the very first ball of the match.

At 1/131 in mid-afternoon, things could barely have looked any better for the home team. Both Blewett (106) and David Fitzgerald (50) were plundering runs at will at that stage, leaving acting New Zealand captain Craig McMillan with plenty of headaches in the arrangement of both his attack and field settings on a cloudless and increasingly warm afternoon.

In the rarely-ruffled figure of Daniel Vettori (3/60), though, McMillan had just the right player to combat the situation. The left arm spinner is still short both of match practice and full physical fitness but could scarcely have produced a better repertoire of deliveries as he set about relaxing South Australia's early stranglehold.

As Daryl Tuffey (3/71) gained no more than a narrow edge in the battle between their three pace bowlers for elevation to the eleven for the Second Test, the form of Vettori was particularly encouraging for the tourists. From the brink of potential despair, he swung the complexion of the day's play completely. He is so determined and indomitable in these kinds of situations that he is probably exactly the sort of character who would prove adept at selling refrigerators to Eskimos too.

On a surface blessed by little more than speckled tinges of grass, he extracted both bounce and turn to put something akin to a hex over the batsmen. Fitzgerald, who had survived a missed stumping only three balls earlier, suddenly found himself induced into cutting to backward point in the spinner's 11th over. After a 112-run partnership, the shot kick-started a slide.

No contemporary Australian player has a better first-class average than Lehmann (0) but his lead over the field wasn't about to be extended.

When he proceeded to smash Chris Martin (0/63) deliveries to fieldsmen on both sides of the wicket as a means of playing himself in, it appeared that something typically significant in the way of entertainment was afoot.

Yet Vettori promptly ended such a prospect in a trice as the South Australian captain advanced a pace at him and tried to loft a flighted delivery ferociously over the leg side - and possibly even out of the suburb too. He miscued, ballooning the ball toward Shane Bond, who stood his ground well under the catch at mid off. Less than a week after the powerful left hander had thrashed an innings of 246 in Hobart, more than one observer was heard to mutter something along the lines of cricket being a funny game.

All the while, Blewett played some sparkling strokes on the path to his third first-class century for the season.

He was subdued in the period that followed Lehmann's dismissal, was beaten twice in one over by Martin, and wasn't always certain against the accuracy of the redoubtable Vettori. But, before top edging a Glen Sulzberger (1/39) off break, he was otherwise in near-complete command. Over 222 minutes, his was a fine innings which mixed elegant attacking strokes with periods of watchful and equally stylish defence. It has been a while since he last played for Australia, but he looked perfectly happy again in this kind of international company.