The first test of mini-series of two matches between New Zealand and England men’s teams has ended early on the fourth of five scheduled days in a crushing victory for England. This post looks back at the match.
ENGLAND BAT FIRST
England batted first and scored at a very quick rate, so that the regular loss of wickets was not as much of an issue as it might have been. When the ninth England wicket fell at 325, with a bit of time left in the day, Ben Stokes declared in order to get New Zealand in under the lights. Harry Brook had made 89 and Ben Duckett 84.
EARLY WICKETS AND A FIGHTBACK
Anderson, Broad and Robinson proved highly effective in the situation that the England batters and their skipper Stokes had created for them and by the end of day one New Zealand were 37-3. On the second day, largely through Tom Blundell (138), the Kiwis mounted a spirited fightback and ended up only 19 runs in deficit on first innings. Stuart Broad and James Anderson stood on the cusp of yet another piece of history, needing one more to wicket between them to have taken more wickets in test matches in which they played together than any other pair of bowlers.
ENGLAND’S SECOND INNINGS
England scored briskly once again, and avoided losing excessive numbers of wickets to the new ball. On day three Neil Wagner put in a spirited bowling effort for the Kiwis, but half centuries for Root, Brook and Foakes plus aggressive contributions from Stokes and Robinson got England to 374 in their second innings, and at pace that meant that for the second time in the match they got to attack the Kiwis under the lights with the new ball (I reckon even if they hadn’t been all out Stokes would have declared to make sure of this, just as he did in the first innings).
NEW ZEALAND SECOND INNINGS
England were even more devastating under the lights second time round, and the Kiwis ended day three on 63-5 and surely knowing that the writing was on the wall.
In the event, in the very small hours of this morning UK time, while I was asleep, the Kiwis managed to exactly double this score, going down by 267 runs. Anderson finished with 4-18, Broad 4-45. Harry Brook was named Player of the Match for his 143 runs across the two England innings. A full scorecard can be viewed here. The biggest difference between the sides was in how they used the new ball – England, helped by Stokes’ game management that saw them twice get to use it under floodlights, kept things tight and took plenty of wickets, while New Zealand took few wickets with the new ball and got smacked around when trying to use it.
SIDELIGHT: INDIA MEN RETAIN BGT
Meanwhile India men were in action against Australia men in the second match of the Border-Gavaskar trophy series, India having won the first by a huge margin. Going into today Australia looked like they had a real chance to level the series, but a brainless display of batting against Jadeja (7-42) and Ashwin saw them crash from 60-1 to 115 all out, and India were never seriously in danger of failing to chase their target of 114 (yes, the teams were separated by a single run on first innings), getting there with six wickets in hand.
PHOTOGRAPHS
I have lots of photographs to share with you. Most of my photographs are taken within walking distance of my home in King’s Lynn, which links to the subject of 15-minute cities – a vision of providing people with amenities close enough to home not to require a car to visit them, and I have two good links to share on this topic:
- This Guardian article by Oliver Wainwright.
- A twitter thread by Haringey based active travel enthusiast Carla Francome based on a recent radio interview.
Now for my usual sign off…
aspiblog 