22nd over: New Zealand 114-3 (Williamson 36, Elliott 11)
A nice cover drive from Elliott nets a couple, as Marsh continues. We seem to have entered the calm middle overs stage about 15 overs early today. It meanders along.
It might be hard time shots on this pitch. It looks tacky, a kind of Demerara sugar brown. That slowness might mean 250 is quite competitive, and with wickets in hand New Zealand could still push towards 280 or 300 as they did in Game 1.
Marsh now 2-16 from four overs, including four from this.
21st over: New Zealand 110-3 (Williamson 35, Elliott 8)
Yet another stingy over, two runs from it. Australia’s entire attack has concentrated on this line outside off.
This is a much bigger ground than Eden Park in all directions, so there’s some distance to that square fence as well as straight.
20th over: New Zealand 108-3 (Williamson 34, Elliott 7)
They still can’t get Marsh away. Elliot fires off a streaky cut shot, in the air, but it’s safe for a single. Two other singles and a leg bye from the over. The run rate is a fairly healthy 5.40, but it just feels like New Zealand are struggling.
19th over: New Zealand 104-3 (Williamson 33, Elliott 5)
Hazlewood pinning Elliott down after Williamson scores a double, then a one to raise the team hundred.
Three balls just outside off to Elliott, including one that beats the edge. But the last ball Hazlewood gets too wide, and Elliott gives it the kitchen sink to send it to the point boundary.
18th over: New Zealand 97-3 (Williamson 30, Elliott 1)
Grant Elliott is next in, and off the mark quickly. Marsh has 2-9 after two overs. Williamson will have to bat through now.
James Barden on email knows about correlation. “See, three wickets down for not many. Khawaja has had an immediate effect.”
WICKET! Nicholls c Wade b Marsh 4 (5 balls)
That’s a shot he won’t want to see again. Marsh comes around the wicket to the lefty, bowls extremely wide, and Nicholls chased it with a mistimed cut shot that he top-edges through to Wade.
Mitchell Marsh is: GoldenArm.
17th over: New Zealand 94-2 (Williamson 28, Nicholls 4)
Nicholls and Williamson are driving Maxwell to distraction, to the point that he dives the wrong way like a premeditating goalkeeper.
He’s at cover for the right-hander, midwicket for the left-handed Nicholls, and both batsmen keep flicking Zampa past him for singles and twos.
Zampa settling into a better length now, only four from the over.
16th over: New Zealand 90-2 (Williamson 27, Nicholls 1)
He’s developed a real knack for early wicket-taking, has Mmmmmmarsh, the Mitchell variety. His first ball of that first over was utterly pounded by Guptill for four, a pull shot that flew in front of square. But Marsh came back to get him with the fourth.
Out comes Henry Nicholls, who played so well in Auckland.
WICKET! Guptill c Khawaja b Marsh 31 (45 balls)
So a slightly slow and stodgy innings from Guptill comes to an end. He timed a few very nicely, but not many. He tried to go long, and instead skewed to deep cover.
15th over: New Zealand 84-1 (Guptill 27, Williamson 26)
Zampa is slightly reminiscent of Xavier Doherty in his stature and his approach to the crease. Aside from the obvious thing bowling with his other arm, and the other spin style. But they both have that little, sprightly, sandy look.
Four singles, Guptill still in the lead.
14th over: New Zealand 80-1 (Guptill 25, Williamson 24)
Guptill back in the lead now, after picking up Boland’s full ball and landing it over mid-on for four.
Updated
13th over: New Zealand 74-1 (Guptill 20, Williamson 23)
Zampa again blows a tidy over from the last ball. With some help from Warner. A single to Guptill from the second ball, Williamson tied down for three, then cover-drives the last and Warner fumbles on the slide for four.
I’ve said Williamson has gone slowly, but he’s passed Guptill who’s been there longer. Williamson has faced two more balls though, 34 to 32.
12th over: New Zealand 69-1 (Guptill 19, Williamson 19)
Boland produces an excellent comeback over. Ball after ball, Williamson tries to come across and work the off-stump line through leg. Ball after ball, Boland beats him, eludes him, or has him clip to the field.
Two runs from the last ball is Williamson’s only blow.
11th over: New Zealand 66-1 (Guptill 18, Williamson 17)
Adam Zampa, on debut, comes on to spin his first delivery down the wicket for Australia. He has two men out down the ground, both quite wide, along with a deep cover point and deep midwicket. In the circle, the field is 3-2.
His first ball has Guptill struggling to keep it out of his pads. Thereafter though, Zampa drops short too often. Williamson doesn’t punish the first, pulled for a single to long-on, but he punishes the second with a gentle back-cut for four.
10th over: New Zealand 57-1 (Guptill 14, Williamson 12)
Boland returns, after all that. He may wish he hadn’t, as Williamson decides his own larval phase is over. He pulls his first boundary from a ball nowhere near short enough for it, then just raises the elbow and lifts another over mid-on with minimal fuss.
Boland’s second career wicket this match has brought his bowling average down to 137 from 259, but there is work yet to do.
9th over: New Zealand 49-1 (Guptill 14, Williamson 4)
Hazlewood takes a leaf out of Hastings’ book, sticking outside off stump, eventually forcing Williamson to move across outside that stump and use Hazlewood’s length to pull a single through square.
Boland delivered only the one over earlier. He was a very late inclusion, a handwritten intro on the team sheet after Kane Richardson’s name had been scrubbed out shortly before the toss.
Guptill takes a single, then Williamson glides another. Three only from another tidy over. Williamson is 4 from 17.
8th over: New Zealand 46-1 (Guptill 13, Williamson 2)
Hastings retains his discipline outside off. Williamson can’t get anything way. There’s plenty of gold clothing on that side of the wicket. There’s a wide and a single from the over. Nothing more.
A tweet in to the OBO from Beau, who if nothing else is pragmatic:
@GeoffLemonSport Hello from Berkeley, California where Spring is, um, springing. Have become a Black Caps fan as streaming them is easy here
— Beau (@beaudotgiles) February 6, 2016
7th over: New Zealand 44-1 (Guptill 13, Williamson 1)
It’s time. Guptill wants to get moving. Makes some space and clouts Hazlewood over long-on. It pitches short and rolls for four.
Then he goes the other way, hanging back a bit but timing his push well enough to split three fieldsmen and just beat the chasing Warner into the cover rope.
6th over: New Zealand 36-1 (Guptill 5, Williamson 1)
Immediate comeback from Hastings. 11 from his first over, 2 from his second, a maiden for his third.
Williamson also wants to play himself in, and Hastings probes around outside the off-stump, adding in a well-directed bouncer, and Williamson’s watchword is watchfulness. You can set your watch to it.
5th over: New Zealand 36-1 (Guptill 5, Williamson 1)
Well, the McCullum wicket fell to Boland’s second ball. Boland’s first ball McCullum had desposited metres over the sight screen with a huge straight drive. But his frenetic batting pace both enthrals and frustrates, as he often goes to the well far too often.
Kane Williamson emerges, makes sure there’ll be no repeat of his rare Auckland duck with a single first ball. Guptill bats out three more dots.
WICKET! McCullum b Boland 28 (12 balls)
There it goes, a big wicket as ever but one that is never too far away. McCullum undone on the charge again, trying to go over cover, misses, and Boland’s length means he just clipped the top of the stumps.
4th over: New Zealand 29-0 (McCullum 22, Guptill 5)
Guptill nearly caught by Mitch Marsh at a shortish cover, from Hastings: tried to smash the drive and only got a bit of it. Just square of Marsh, and they got two runs out to cover.
It forces a cautious reassessment from Guptill, who blocks out the rest of the over. He did this a fair bit early in Auckland, then smashed the bowling later.
Updated
Drop me a line to tell me how you’re seeing the game, or where you are, or what you’re doing, or what you think of my hair.
On the Twitter thing @GeoffLemonSport, or email geoff.lemon@theguardian.com.
3rd over: New Zealand 27-0 (McCullum 22, Guptill 3)
Whacko! McCullum is enjoying this. A length ball from Hazlewood, and the New Zealand skipper is down the pitch and driving over cover for six! What a shot.
Then he drills a ball violently back at Hazlewood, which would have hurt as the bowler stopped it. Then a short ball pumped over square for another six, which might have hurt more.
The charging cut shot is brought out from the last ball, but Bailey at cover makes a sensational diving save to make a four into a dot ball.
2nd over: New Zealand 15-0 (McCullum 10, Guptill 3)
Oof! John Hastings bowled so well in Auckland, 1-39 from 10 overs in an innings conceding over 300.
He goes for 11 in his first over here. McCullum’s vicious cut shot first ball was nearly caught by Maxwell at point, but just cleared him. Then a pull the next ball for another boundary. A single, before Guptill takes two from an inside edge.
An over with plenty of hope for the bowler, but plenty of punishment too.
1st over: New Zealand 4-0 (McCullum 1, Guptill 1)
As they did in Auckland, Guptill and McCullum get off to a calm start. Two leg byes from Hazlewood’s first ball, a couple of singles thereafter.
Updated
So, Richardson with an injury niggle, and Boland in. Leg-spinner Zampa makes his debut. And Shaun of the Marshes is dropped for… Khawaja. Khawaja. The name on a nation’s lips. When will he be brought in, they have clamoured? The answer is today.
A lot of pressure on national selector Rod Marsh over Khawaja. Here is a very compassionate (ahem) take on the issue from the excellent Ben Pobjie. Read on.
No changes for En Zed.
Updated
Your teams for the day.
New Zealand
Guptill
McCullum (c)
Williamson
Nicholls
Elliott
Anderson
Ronchi (w)
Santner
Milne
Henry
Boult
Australia
Warner
Khawaja
Smith (c)
Bailey
Maxwell
M. Marsh
Wade (w)
Hastings
Zampa
Hazlewood
Boland
New Zealand win the toss and will bat
Brendon McCullum celebrates his farewell tour with another coin win. Once again the home side will set a target. It worked for them last time.
Good afternoon, as it is in the New Zealand isles, or whatever time of day it may be around the world. Geoff Lemon here indeed, raring to bring you the tales of woe and glory, or their nearest counterparts, from the Cake Tin stadium in the bay city of Wellington.
This is the second ODI of the trans-Tasman series, and I can report that New Zealand could retain the Chappell-Hadlee trophy that they rather ridiculously won for winning a single World Cup pool match early in 2015, after the two nations had not vied for the prize in too many years.
Now the trophy is on the line for a proper series contest, and it’s up to the team in gold to take that contest into a third and deciding match.
And yes, this stadium really, really, really does look like a cake tin. We are bathing in batter on the inside.
Updated
Geoff will be here shortly. In the meantime, get yourself up to speed on Australia’s DRS-gate, which may or may not have prompted the tourists’ spectacular collapse in the opening match in Auckland.
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New Zealand v Australia: second ODI – live!
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