New Zealand v England: 1st Test, Day 1 - Yes, England’s Winter Can Get Worse

 

New Zealand v England: 1^st Test, Day 1

Yes, England’s Winter Can Get Worse

March 22^nd 2018

First, the good news:

·       England finally bit the bullet and dropped James Vince.

·       And Craig Overton, on his return to the side, produced another gutsy innings that saved England from the danger of equaling, or beating, the lowest ever completed innings in Test cricket.

Now, the bad news:

·       Everything else.

If you thought that England’s winter could not get worse, think again. It just has. And we are only on Day 1. There is every likelihood that England will be following-on on Day 2. And that an innings defeat will follow on Day 3. In a 2-match series, that is probably not the best way to set about winning the series… unless you are a New Zealander.

England had already made at least three, bold decisions. Two of them at least are going to be attacked in retrospect. Ben Stokes, as widely predicted, was picked to bat at 5. However, despite the smoke signals that said that he would be ready to bowl, if not full spells, at least as a fourth seamer, he is not fit to bowl. That meant dropping a batsman to make room for an extra seamer. This set up a ripple of shock waves. #5 is Dawid Malan’s slot and one that he made a success of in the Ashes. One way to accommodate Ben Stokes was to drop James Vince and move Malan up to 3. This is what most people expected. Malan is not a natural #3, but is at least in good form. Instead, Joe Root was moved up to 3, despite his known detestation of batting there. Malan moved to #4. So, to accommodate one player, three changes were made in the top 5. In retrospect, it may not have been the wisest move in a batting order short of runs and confidence.

So, who was to be the extra seamer? In the end, Craig Overton was selected, presumably as the man in possession before his injury. However, as I said in the preview, he is an honest, English seamer. He will not take stacks of wickets, but he will bowl whole-heartedly. Again, in retrospect, seeing just how similar all the bowlers were – all variants on gentle seam and swing – it is easy to wonder whether or not Mark Wood’s extra pace and threat would have made a difference.

And, of course, England’s newest specialist bat, made an 8-ball duck. At least he was in good company: Root, Bairstow, Moeen Ali and Broad also made ducks.

At 23-8, there was every chance of England equaling, or setting a new mark for the lowest ever score in a Test match… 26ao by New Zealand in 1955. That they did not was because Craig Overton, a last-minute call-up, batting at 9 and coming in at 23-7, decided to counter-attack and swung the bat to great effect for about half an hour before leaving Jimmy Anderson to face one ball too many.

For 25 balls things had seemed to be going reasonably well. Alistair Cook started in confident mood, nicking a single at the end of each over, as if protecting Stoneman from the strike. Boult went wide of the crease, moved the ball away and Cook guided it to second slip. Boult’s opening spell was accurate, he moved the ball both ways and was deadly. Seven overs into his spell Trent Boult was guarding the astonishing figures of 7-3-9-5.

The bowling was very good, especially Boult, whose laser-guided accuracy took advantage of errors of batting technique. New Zealand have made good on their promise to be as big a test as - possibly even greater than - Australia. The pitch was blameless. The fielders backed-up their bowlers. And the England batsmen made the bowlers even better by not moving their feet. That the pitch was good was shown by the ease with which New Zealand cruised to a lead of 117 by the Close, with just 3 wickets down. The only consolation is that New Zealand scored very slowly. The new ball is due in the first hour and, unless used to devastating effect, England could be batting again after dinner, 300+ behind and the Test as good as over on Day 2. You have to be impressed by the hosts. They were brilliant, but they were pitted against a pretty hapless opposition.