Australia thrash New Zealand. by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

Scorecard:	Australia v New Zealand
Player:	LRPL Taylor, SR Clark, MJ Clarke, MG Johnson, B Lee, SM Katich
Event:	New Zealand in Australia 2008/09

DateLine: 23rd November 2008

Australia win the first test by 149 runs to lead the series 1-0 at the Gabba in Brisbane.Johnson and Stuart Clark were the wreckers in chief picking 5 and 4 wickets respectively.

Starting at their overnight score of 143 for 6, New Zealand were bundled out 177 in just 45 minutes.Ross Taylor was the top scorer with 75.Johnson picked up his first 5 wicket haul in tests.He wrapped up the tail and Australia had an easy win.

It was an easy win at the end of the day but Australia did not have things easy.At the end of the second day the match was evenly balanced. But the thin and experienced batting line up of New Zealand made sure that Australia had it easy.

What surprised everybody was the way Australian batsman had succumbed to the rookie Kiwi batsmen. Barring Katich and Clark none of the players did well and that will be a worry for the captain, who himself has been struggling for runs.

But Lee has been struggling a bit on the bowling front inspite of picking his 300th test wicket.The biggest positive for Australia has been the form of Johnson and Clark who were the key architects of the win. But they would want to their batsman to get some runs on the board to have a complete performance in the second test.

New Zealand on the other hand would want to improve on this performance and make sure that their batsman make big scores. Their inexperienced bowlers will be extremely happy with the way they bowled and they would want their batsmen to score some runs so as to put it across Australia in the second test.