Milestones galore expected in Hamilton Test

Hamilton (New Zealand), Mar. 26 (ANI): Saturday’s second cricket Test between Australia and New Zealand will be a milestone game for both teams.

Australian batsmen Mike Hussey and Simon Katich, who were junior rivals in Perth at the age of nine, will play their 50th Test matches alongside each other.

Kiwi captain Daniel Vettori will celebrate his 100th Test match.

Katich has scored seven centuries in his past 26 Tests, but the opener isn’t in the mood to be backing himself for a return to England for the 2013 Ashes tour just yet.

“I wouldn’t look that far in front,” the Sydney Morning Herald quoted Katich, who broke back into the Test team in 2008 after two-and-a-half years back in state cricket for NSW, as saying.

“In the last couple of years I’ve taken it year by year. If you get too far in front of yourself in this game, it can come back to haunt you,” he added.

“That’s one thing time out of the team certainly put things in perspective. It made me realise every chance I get, I just look at the next Test. I know it’s a cliché, but it’s all you can do, once you do get older. You can’t hide the greys. It catches up with everyone,” he said.

Hussey, who recalled having tears in his eyes upon his debut in Brisbane in 2005, is not making any grand statements either on his Test future.

“I’m similar to Kat. I just can’t get over that I’m playing my 50th Test,” said Hussey, also 34.

“So, I want to really enjoy this one and I don’t like to look too far ahead … because the game can jump up and bite you so quickly. I don’t like to look too far back either,” he added.

“I just really want to do well in this 50th Test which I’m still pinching myself that I’ve got the opportunity to play,” Hussey said. (ANI)