Kasprowicz gives Australia the upper hand

Close New Zealand 7 for 250 (Sinclair 69, Oram 63*) v Australia
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Mathew Sinclair and Jacob Oram contributed a pair of contrasting half-centuries on the opening day of the first Test at Brisbane, to ensure that New Zealand did not entirely squander the opportunity of batting first on a typically hard and true Gabba wicket. Even so, it was Australia who emerged with the day's honours, thanks to another sterling contribution from their renaissance man, Michael Kasprowicz, who grabbed each of the first three wickets to fall in front of his home crowd, to ensure that New Zealand were playing catch-up all day long.

New Zealand had their moments throughout the day, but they were all too brief as wickets fell in clusters in each of the three sessions. Kasprowicz dealt their hopes an early blow with two wickets in the space of four balls in the first hour, and Australia then stole the honours in the afternoon session as well, with two quick wickets almost on the stroke of tea. By the time the new ball was taken, with ten overs of the day remaining, New Zealand's innings had been reduced to the bare bones, thanks to a pair of sucker-punches from Shane Warne, who defied the pain of a broken thumb to extend his world record to 543 wickets.

Oram and Daniel Vettori rallied the total in the final half-hour, but by then the damage had already been done, thanks to a hugely disciplined performance from Australia's three-pronged seam attack. They were presented with a typically hard and true Gabba pitch, far removed from the dustbowl that was served up for Australia's most recent Test, at Mumbai earlier this month, and they quickly reacquainted themselves with their home comforts.

All three extracted kicking bounce and taxing seam movement, but it was Kasprowicz, whose subtle seamers were once again preferred to the express pace of Brett Lee, who proved to be the biggest handful. He struck in his third over to remove Mark Richardson, who began in typically attritional fashion but had no answer whatsoever to a perfectly-pitched legcutter. Three balls later, Stephen Fleming fell victim to a similar, fractionally straighter, variety (2 for 26).

Kasprowicz added a third soon after lunch, when Scott Styris - his feet caught in no-man's land - edged a simple catch through to Adam Gilchrist for 27. At 3 for 77, New Zealand were there for the taking, but instead Australia went off the boil, in a period of play marked by a pair of badly fluffed catches in the outfield.

Nathan Astle was the beneficiary on both occasions. Earlier this week, Astle was targeted by Glenn McGrath as New Zealand's main man, and McGrath should have had his scalp on 16, when Darren Lehmann made a horlicks of a swirling catch at backward square leg. Two runs later, Astle swished at Warne, and this time the culprit was Australia's man of the morning, Kasprowicz, who was unable to steady himself in time, as he back-pedalled from mid-on.

The sloppy spell lasted for all of two more deliveries, however. In the very next over, Astle fended Jason Gillespie towards gully, where the ball was parried into the path of Michael Clarke, swooping in from point. Quick as a flash, Clarke picked up and hurled at the non-striker's end, and a nonplussed Astle was run out by a good six inches (4 for 138).

Suitably geed up, Gillespie then prised the limpet-like Sinclair from the crease, with a pearling off-stump delivery that was angled low into the hands of Ricky Ponting at second slip. Sinclair was gone for 69, a vital contribution to New Zealand's cause, but an innings that had mixed the stately with the streaky - in all he had faced 163 balls, with nine fours of varying degrees of rashness, including an inside-edge past the keeper to reach his fifty.

Oram and Craig McMillan did their utmost to patch up the innings, but for McMillan in particular it was a fretful innings. The unexpected nature of his recall was clearly playing on his mind as he weighed up the pros and cons of an all-out assault on the semi-fit Warne, whose looping legbreaks were lacking their usual venom. After allowing one rank long-hop to go unpunished, McMillan reacted by depositing Warne deep into the stands at long-on, but it was to be his last act of aggression. Moments later, Warne dragged him out of his crease with a pinpoint flipper, and McMillan would have been stumped by a country mile had he not feathered a thin edge through to Gilchrist in the process.

Warne then struck for a second time, as Gilchrist snatched a leaping legbreak and whipped off the bails with Brendon McCullum's back foot millimetres out of its crease, and at 7 for 206, New Zealand were staring at a first-day wipeout. But Vettori's uncomplicated grit was precisely the partner that Oram needed, and they had added 44 vital runs by the close. It was not enough to mask the deficiencies at the top of the order, but it was evidence that there is still plenty to play for in this match.