Negative Black Caps are well short of the mark

Sometimes there is beauty in defeat. Sometimes it is OK to smile and cheer and wave even when your team is getting a pummelling, as New Zealand’s fans so gloriously did at the MCG. Sometimes it is enough to say, ‘‘I was there,’’ as a wonderful team arises from the salt and ashes of past defeats.

Kane Williamson and New Zealand need to look at this Australia side and realise a new standard is being set in test cricket. A few years ago I wrote that a magnificent Australian team was on the rise. I was wrong. Spinal injuries broke the back of it and it has taken years for Pat Cummins and James Pattinson to recover.

But these young men are finally fit and playing cricket together for the first time. And what a thrill it is to see proper fast bowling. What a thrill it is to be reminded of how good test cricket can be. It is mindblowing, especially for opposition batsmen.

This is also a reality check for New Zealand. In more ways than one they have come up a long, long way short in this series. The country would have hoped for more resistance from its batsmen, but the problems start with its bowlers. They have got it horribly wrong in both test matches and have laid the long weary road to defeat.

I have heard a lot of guff in the last couple of weeks and a lot of it concerns Tim Southee, one of the blunt spearheads of New Zealand’s attack. People say; Tim Southee is the second highest wicket taker in the series (behind Wagner as it happens), Tim Southee is the 13th best bowler in the world. Tim Southee took 9-162 in the first test and fought bravely in a losing cause.

Let’s dismiss that final point and most of the rest will follow. In Perth Southee did not take a single wicket with the first new ball. Australia had reached 225 by the time he got Matthew Wade and, on a helpful wicket, the game was all but gone. Those nine wickets nearly all came when Australia were on the slog.

The same thing happened in the second test. Kane Williamson chose to bowl after winning the toss because the conditions were extremely helpful. Again Southee did not take a single wicket until New Zealand were onto the second new ball. Once more the game had gone.

Williamson was correct when he said: ‘‘There was a missed trick there. If we’re being critical we did need to be better [on day one], we needed to put the ball in the right area for longer periods. We went past the bat a few times but perhaps we were still a bit short on that front.’’

Yes, but I wonder if New Zealand came up short because their thinking has been short, short, short. When you half believe that the only way that you will get out David Warner,

Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith is with short-pitched bowling, then you have almost given up the game.

Southee beat the bat a few times, but that was because he was defensively short of a good length on the Melbourne pitch. You could see the difference when Cummins bowled. He was a tad short in his first spell and the coaches got into him to pitch the ball up. Cummins was then devastating. It was beautiful to watch the world’s premier bowler in full flow.

Cummins is not as showy or quite as quick as Mitchell Starc, but he is devastating because of his accuracy. I do not like the way that Neil Wagner bowls, but I admire his accuracy, the ability to hit the same spot on the pitch over and over again with his short pitched balls.

But accuracy has been missing from the rest of this New Zealand attack. Trent Boult opened up with a magnificent ball to dismiss Joe Burns, but then he looked short of match practice. His first ball on the second day was a half volley. In contrast the Aussies never gave New Zealand any respite.

Ialso don’t think it can help New Zealand’s attack when you know that a big part of the plan is Bodyline. That is negative and almost undermines your strike bowlers. Wagner is now the second ranked bowler in the world, but at what cost, both to cricket and to his team?

You suspected that New

Zealand thought it was a victory to get out Warner, Labuschagne and Smith for a combined total of 189 in the first innings. They crow that Smith is Wagner’s bunny. But only one team is disappearing down the rabbit hole and it is not Australia.

The Aussie captain Tim Paine said of Williamson’s struggles: ‘‘We’re bowling really well to him and we’re making them bowl a lot of overs, and making him make a lot of decisions in the field and that’s what we want to do, wear opposition players down, particularly their best player and captain.’’

Speed, accuracy and heat has always been a winning combination in cricket. The West Indies called it fire in Babylon. Australia cricket is now burning with its own bush fires. It seems almost symbolic that the tragic blazes that are ripping through the country may threaten the third test in Sydney.

Cummins says that it took him four years to learn to be patient. He is now the best bowler in the world and Australia are on the verge of an era of greatness. Imagine Cummins, Starc, Pattinson, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon all playing together in the same team for the first time.

The Aussies are cautious about that. If they had a middleorder batsman like Michael Hussey and a keeper-batsman like Adam Gilchrist then they would definitely play all five when Hazlewood is fit again.

It would put the fear into any test team. Williamson said: ‘‘Over the last two test matches we’ve been under pressure for kind of every session of all of those. We need to try and turn that around.’’

Good luck with that. The fast and furious fire of Australia is upon us – sometimes you just have to sit back and enjoy the heat.

‘‘The country would have hoped for more resistance from its batsmen, but the problems start with its bowlers.’’

Sometimes you just have to sit back and applaud the quality of Pat Cummins’ bowling.

AP James Pattinson, pictured celebrating the wicket of Ne Zealand batsman Ross Taylor, left, has been part of the reason for Australia’s dominance in the series to date.