As an Aussie fan who isn’t holding out much hope of regaining the Ashes, I’m just glad that our sheep-bothering brethren from across the Tasman are seemingly taking it to the Poms.
New Zealand, as I type this, are 24/2.
Not a particularly special innings by England there. It’s difficult to tell from a distance how much was them being pinned back by the bowling and how much was over caution, but I was disappointed at the way Compton got out (running down the pitch and slapping the ball in the air.).
Having said that, it’s something to bowl at, and since we’ve already got a couple of wickets I’m pretty confident we can still get a first innings lead here.
Not seen the match. Whats wrong? Did somebody mine the pitch?
I am fortunate enough to work in a job where I have a TV at my desk that picks up Sky Sports 1. I reckon NZ bowled really well, kept it tight and waited for England to get bogged down and make mistakes. Only 2 or 3 of the England wickets were “good deliveries” and a few of the rest can be put down to NZ bowling dry and letting England lose patience. If the NZ batsmen can be patient, then they should be able to bat England out of this. The two wickets for Anderson are both good deliveries.
The batting line up for England looks somewhat imbalanced, I reckon. Compton, Cook and Trott are all fine at the top of the order, if one of them gets a big score. If they all get bogged down and then out for not very much though, we look really one paced - something NZ have managed to exploit both here and down under in the winter. There’s still time - and I am not advocating change for change’s sake - but it’s probably something that management will have to have a think about sooner rather than later.
AK84 - no mines on the field. If anything it’s a bit slow. Overhead conditions have been bowler friendly and NZ bowled with discipline. The outfield is also quite lush due to recent rain, so not a lot is rolling for 4 unless timed well. All told a few of England’s bats got too bogged down and played silly shots trying to get some fluency, though a couple got good balls.
Ross Taylor currently showing his class - scoring at nearly a run a ball. England have struggled against him - Williamson is batting at the same rate as England were though. England are going to have problems unless they can get Taylor soon.
Awesome - I have talked Taylor out. Lbw b. Anderson.
Big wicket for England.
NZ must have bowled with a lot of discipline. Helluva lot of maidens in that England first innings.
NZ slowly, slowly accumulating runs, being cautious without losing wickets. 79 runs behind, with 6 wickets left. Not much play left tonight, would love another wicket before close just to keep England in the hunt, NZ would be very happy to go in only 4 down.
Actually, they are now coming off, and they’re unlikely to get back on. Work to do by England.
A very good day for New Zealand> Taknig England’s last 6 wickets for 72 runs isn’t too bad fro a 'toothless attack. The last five English batsmen scored 0,0,5,4 and 7no. Clearly Anderson needs to bat up the order in the second innings. Getting Piror first ball was huge as well.
New Zealand ended the day on almost exactly the same score as England ended day one. Hopefully they don’t collapse on day three and rack up a decent lead.
Unsurprisingly, NZ make me eat my words.
So England got their first innings lead - and 25 runs can be a lot in these low scoring games - but now the openers are out there going along at a fair clip.
There seems to be some controversy about an incident with Cook and the DRS, anyone know what happened?
There was a review, it was given not out, some tech not available to the reviewers suggests it might have been out after all, hardly conclusive.
All rendered moot by today’s display. After rolling England’s last four over for barely 30, NZ went and lost half their batsmen for less than England had just added, and it got no better with the last of 'em. In the context of the match until then, losing by 170 is what’s known as “a fucking good hiding”.
Just sat and watched the highlights.
Some really good bowling (by both sides, actually). But both Broad and Anderson have done well here in the past, they know how to bowl here and New Zealand had no answer at all. Swann would also have done well here, I think, so even if they had managed to see them off, the asked total was probably beyond them.
Leeds next.
You have to feel for Tim Southee, who bowled beautifully, got on the Lord’s board twice in the same match (five wickets in an innings, ten in the match) and still finished on the losing side by a street.
All out for 68? What the hell was that? Haven’t seen the highlights yet. Was it more a matter of great bowling or awful batting?
My initial prediction should have read: “Personally I think we’ll see a close but rain affected first innings only for New Zealand to have a humiliating collapse in the second.”
Anything other than an innings defeat in the second test will look good for New Zealand now.
This match looks like an absolute dicking but at 10 to noon on Sunday, it was still very finely balanced. New Zealand - and particularly their bowlers - did an excellent job throughout the opening 3 innings.
By lunch, the game was over as a contest. Of the top order, Fulton and Williamson were culpable in their demise but Rutherford got an absolute belter, Taylor also got a bloody good delivery, McCullum got one that seamed back on him by a mile and Brownlie was done by a classic piece of bowling, set up by one delivery that nearly carved him in two and then got one pitching in roughly the same place that held its line. It was damn good bowling I would say, in conditions that would cause most batsmen problems.
One innings where two of the opposition bowl right at the top of their game shouldn’t negate the good things that NZ did in this match. They were right in this game until Broad decided it was going to be his day. I expect NZ to be similarly obdurate in the Leeds game - which, given it’s in the North, in May, will almost certainly be a draw with time lost to the weather (though I have not looked at the long range forecast yet).
I’d agree, I go so far as to say that, in those favourable conditions yesterday Broad and Anderson were pretty much unplayable. They got swing late, severe and often and I’m not sure that any batting line-up in the world could have dealt with it.
We come back to the uncomfortable fact that all too often recently we’ve had either bat or ball working well, not so much together. The period when we did saw us reach no.1 status and quite rightly. Can we get there again? I’d suggest the raw materials are as good as ever they were.
Quelle surprise. It’s raining hard at Leeds and the start has been delayed. Struggling to understand quite why we insist on playing Test matches in May in this country - I mean, it’s obviously for the money, but the amount of time we seem to lose to rain every year means it’s a bit of a folly. They should have a think about playing the longer test series in June/July and the other shorter one in August/September. Champions Trophy has knackered that this year though. Would also lift these Tests clear of the IPL.
Anyway, no real team news yet that I have seen. Watling is injured so MacCullum will keep wicket more than likely.
First day totally rained off, forecast is better for tomorrow. The toss hasn’t even been taken.