No easy return for Bell at his Basin patch

Matthew Bell returned to the Basin Reserve today looking for comfort in familiar surroundings but found in a welcome homecoming less succour and less refuge than he had hoped.

Pursued through New Zealand's tour of Australia by the dull ache that comes from poor form, suffering the steady dissipation of confidence that comes from repeated failure, Bell had looked to this day for a spark of hope and the promise of rehabilitation.

He had hoped for an innings under less pressure than he endured in Australia where he had to face, at its most virulent, the world's best mixed pace and spin attacks and where his failures at the top of New Zealand's order became an issue of increasing moment.

He hoped to build an innings which as it grew would help to build his confidence and he saw no better place to do so than at the Basin Reserve where he had found runs in genuine abundance last season.

But the torment of this grim summer is not yet over for Bell. After opening Wellington's innings, after batting soundly but in the manner of man searching for timing and for faith for 54 minutes, Bell was the first man out in Wellington's first innings and for only 12.

Bell has reverted to the conventional stance which preceded his experimentation last season with a technical oddity - with a guard in which his back foot was drawn back outside leg stump and in which he hunched like a sprinter at the crease.

He used both guards in Australia and neither helped him. He tried today to bat conventionally and for a time his reversion to that model seemed beneficial.

Bell struggled with his timing today as did all Wellington batsmen who remain hopelessly deprived of matchplay as a summer of almost monsoon conditions continues. He was sound through most of his innings. He seemed able to read length and line with the speed and clarity of last season and he watchfully left the balls outside off stump which were often his downfall in Australia.

But he was not the player who last season dominated attacks. Scoring was far from easy as the Basin Reserve outfield remained wet from days of rain. Still, Bell was not himself.

Bell's dismissal was as uncharacteristic as his innings which, in reflection, seemed laborious. He played the sort of shot he had been able to eliminate from his repertoire by sheer effort of will last summer. He flashed outside off stump and he was caught at backward point by Jamie How from the bowling of Lance Hamilton.

Wellington lost the wickets of Phil Chandler, only an over after Bell, for one when they were 39 and Richard Jones for 31 when they were 64. Even Jones batted less fluidly than he is want to do and his innings of 92 minutes contained only four boundaries from 67 balls.

Several shots which, on a ground in better condition would have produced fours, drew up inside the boundary or were overtaken by fieldsmen as they ran very slowly through the saturated outfield.

He played some shots of quality and authority, including a straight drive off Michael Mason and a number of sharp slaps through the leg side.

Stephen Fleming joined Jones in a partnership of 25 before his dismissal in the 23rd over. And nor was Fleming entirely himself in these demanding conditions.

When stumps were drawn after three hours of play and 46 overs, he had batted 119 minutes for his 39 runs and he had among his scoring shots only two boundaries. Chris Nevin was with him, not out on 17, after 76 minutes at the crease during which his scoring was also restricted and which brought him only one four from 48 balls.

Fleming survived a confident lbw appeal by Mason when he was 14 in the 21st over and as he leaned forward into a ball that kept low. He played an array of shots which implied an array of risk, dropping the ball at times over the heads of the cover field, but he was not at any stage as fluent, as acquisitive, as he is inclined to be.

Still, his innings was richly valuable to Wellington who batted first after losing the toss. Play began at 4pm when all possible steps had been taken to repair the effects of the rain that had fallen for the past eight days in Wellington and abated only in the middle of this matchday morning.

Central's bowling performance was perhaps not as sharp as it might have been, given the boon they had been awarded in winning the toss. The pace of the wicket more than any movement it created caused problems for the batsman but Mason at least was able to cause the ball to leave the right handers.

Mason finished with 2-50 from 15 overs - the valuable wickets of Jones and Grant Donaldson - Hamilton dismissed Bell at a cost of 20 runs in 10 overs and Brent Hefford took 1-25.