12 wickets fall on 1st day of 1st day-night cricket test

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) With a dozen wickets tumbling, the pink ball swinging seriously under lights and Australia's leading paceman limping off injured, the opening day of the first day-night cricket test was as extraordinary as organizers could have hoped.

The crowd swelled to 47,441 at the Adelaide Oval before Australia reached stumps at 54-2 on Friday, batting for 22 overs after bowling New Zealand out for 202.

Skipper Steve Smith (24) and Adam Voges (9) were unbeaten at the close, resisting after openers David Warner (1) and Joe Burns (14) failed for a rare time in the series.

New Zealand started positively after Brendon McCullum won the toss in the historic match, reaching 80-2 in the first session with Tom Latham posting a half century after play started at 2 p.m. local time.

But Australia took five wickets in the second session and finished off New Zealand shortly after the first dinner interval in test cricket.

Starc returned 3-24 before leaving the field because of a stress fracture in his right foot that will prevent him from bowling for the remainder of the match.

It was the only setback in the middle session for the Australians, who took five wickets - including three for four runs within 11 balls, all caught behind by Peter Nevill - to remove Latham (50), Ross Taylor (21), McCullum (4), Mitch Santner, who scored 31 from 46 balls in his first test innings, and Mark Craig (11).

Hazlewood (3-66) took the first wicket with the pink ball in a test match when he trapped Martin Guptill lbw in the fourth over, and returned to take the first test wicket in a night session when he removed B.J. Watling (29).

''All in all it went pretty well,'' said Peter Siddle, who was recalled to fill a void in the Australian attack after Mitchell Johnson retired last week, and took 2-54 to reach 200 career test wickets. ''There wasn't a lot of swing early on for us but I think as the evening moved into the twilight period there was a bit in the wicket, a bit of sideways movement off the deck, but I think it played well.

''To go out there in probably the toughest part of the day to be 2-50, it's not a bad situation.''

Trent Boult, who had Warner caught at third slip by Tim Southee in the fourth over of Australia's innings, described the atmosphere as electric, and said the first night session with the experimental pink ball ''played out exactly as we forecast it.''

''It does seem to change a lot under lights and in the last session,'' he said. ''It definitely swung around a little bit there with the new ball, and there was still a shade of it with it 22 overs old.

''From what everyone is saying, it's a different game under lights. The game is well and truly progressed - definitely a pretty good first day.''

Both wickets in the first session went to lbw decisions, with Hazlewood trapping Guptill (1) with the total at 7, and Starc hitting Kane Williamson (22) on the foot with an in-swinging yorker to end a 52-run second-wicket stand after Nathan Lyon (2-42) and Siddle (2-54) dried up the run-rate in the second hour.

Latham raised his half century with a cut boundary in the over before tea but didn't add to his total after the interval, when a ceremony to mark the first anniversary of former Australia batsman Phillip Hughes' death was held at 4:08 p.m.

The dismissals of the Australian openers exposed some vulnerability against serious swing but the unprecedented conditions didn't help the hosts.

Warner didn't settle before edging Boult (1-15) to third slip, and Burns appeared uncomfortable before dragging a Doug Bracewell (1-6) delivery back onto his stumps.

The good news for the Australians is that conditions should favor batting during the daylight hours on Saturday.

The experimental pink ball withstood the first two sessions and didn't really produce any exceptional difference to the regulation red balls. The night session lived up to predictions that it would favor swing, and be most challenging for the batsmen for an hour around dusk.

Australia leads the three-test series 1-0 after a 208-run win in Brisbane and a high-scoring draw in Perth.