Australia complete another easy win

Australia 8 for 575 dec and 2 for 139 dec beat New Zealand 251 and 250 (Vettori 59) by 213 runs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Australia took a session and six balls to complete an easy 213-run victory over New Zealand on the final day of the second Test at Adelaide. Had Australia not been out of sorts for much of the fourth day, the margin would have been greater and the match shorter.

New Zealand were a distant second-best and, as Malcolm Conn wrote yesterday in The Australian, we should all be thankful this was not a three-match series. New Zealand were outbatted and outbowled, and only some pride-salvaging resistance from their middleand lower-order batsmen extended the game into the afternoon session. Daniel Vettori's breezy 59 showed up all the deficiencies of the top order, and his mixture of studious defence and attack when the opportunity presented itself was about the only worthwhile point of the entire innings.

Australia started well, with Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie making the ball move and the batsmen play. McGrath struck in the second over of the day with a beauty which pitched middle-and-leg, and moved markedly off the seam. Jacob Oram, committed to playing, nicked the ball and Adam Gilchrist took a routine catch. Oram hadn't added to his overnight 40. When, on the half-hour, Gillespie cut one back to trap Brendon McCullum leg-before for a bright 36, a quick end seemed likely.

But Vettori had other ideas, opting to play his shots, especially strong when hitting back past the bowler, and taking the attack to the Australians. With James Franklin, he added 46 in almost 11 overs, and it took a good diving catch in front of first slip from Gilchrist off Michael Kasprowicz to end the stand and send Franklin on his way.

Vettori was then joined by Paul Wiseman, no mug himself as his first-class hundred proved, and the pair safely negotiated the threat of Shane Warne and the lesser worry of Darren Lehmann. Vettori brought up a well-received fifty shortly before the interval, fittingly with a straight and lofted drive, but on the verge of the break he tried to chip Lehmann once too often, failed to get hold of it and Gillespie at mid-off took the catch.

Chris Martin was never going to delay matters long after lunch, and the surprise when he clipped Warne's second ball to leg for two was only exceeded when he turned down a fairly easy third run. Warne needed no second chance, and next ball Ricky Ponting held a diving bat-pad catch at short leg to end a contest which never really began.

Martin Williamson is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo.