New Zealand
v England: 2nd Test, Day 3
This is not
an April Fool: England may win!
April 1st 2018
When England were 94-5 on the first afternoon, you would not have got
very good odds on a New Zealand win. The dark forecasts of some fans that
England would be whitewashed 2-0 looked all too likely to be fulfilled. It is
Joe Root though who, today, will be shouting “April Fool”, having fooled most
of the cricketing world into believing that his side would struggle to beat
anyone right now. Suddenly and unexpectedly, England are right on top and, with
two days to play – albeit two days that will be curtailed due to bad light – will
hope to set New Zealand around 400 to win in four and a half sessions.
If you had added that this position would be set up by Stoneman and Vince,
you would have been condemned for trying an obvious April Fool. Let us not be
fooled though. Stoneman and Vince respect tradition and have not suddenly
become Compton and Edrich: Stoneman pushes his highest Test score ever upwards
– 52, 53, 56 and now, 60! At this rate he should score his maiden Test century
in around his 40th Test. If you look at Stoneman’s scores in this
series – 11, 55, 35 & 60 – you would feel forced to say that he has been a
success, averaging 40, but he continues to suffer from vertigo when in. If you
consider reaching 15 as getting a start, he has done it in 13 of his 18 Test
innings, but still averages only 30.2. Vince is just as bad. He has now played
13 Tests and averages under 25. He has reached 15 in his last eight innings,
but passed 25 just twice. And his dismissals are almost identical ever time,
prodding outside off. Partnership of 123, grinding England into a position of
near impregnability and then both getting out within a few runs of each other.
It is fortunate that two other players who are short of runs in recent Tests
took up the baton. There is a lot of chatter about Joe Root’s inability it
covert 50s into 100s in Tests – a century here would set up a declaration and
make a point. And, after a superb run, Dawid Malan’s run fountain has started
to dry up. Since the start of the winter Tests, Joe Root has fallen in single
figures just twice and made 6x50, but never got close to a century and has just
one century in his last 13 Tests, as against 11x50. It is hard to criticise
someone who has passed 50 twelve times in thirteen Tests, but such are the
standards that Root has set, that people do wonder if the captaincy has just taken
a little edge off his game. Dawid Malan was one of the great successes of the
Ashes with 1x100 and 3x50 but, his last 5 innings have been 5, 2, 23, 0 &
(now) 19*: another low score and the shine will be coming right off that Ashes
success. Malan’s average is under 31 after twelve Tests and he knows that it
has to increase, and rapidly, to cement his place.
That England are in this position is down to some excellent bowling from
Stuart Broad. Bowling a fuller length and making batsmen play has made him look
exponentially more threatening and a 6-for and his best figures for almost two
years have been the reward. The opening bowlers on either side now have the
first 23 wickets of the match. Never have the two pairs of opening bowlers
bettered this number and, should Boult or Southee manage the next wicket to
fall, the match will set a new record in Tests, beating the mark last set in 1912.
What England would like is to press on in the first session and stretch
the lead from its current 231 to around 350. An hour in the afternoon at most,
then, to a declaration. Ideally, they would like Root and Malan to set a
foundation for Stokes and Bairstow to come in with a licence to enjoy
themselves. Of course, in this topsy-turvy series of collapses and tail-end
heroics, who knows what the reality will be like?
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