the times | Monday June 13 2022 63
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and the Surrey batsman called the
Yorkshireman “England’s greatest ever”.
“I try to learn from him as much as I
can, whether that’s him throwing balls
at you for 20 minutes at the end of a ses-
sion, which he will always happily do, or
picking his brains as much as I can. He
also wants success out of his team-
mates as much as they do themselves.”
That pleasure in other people’s
success was apparent with the hug Root
gave Pope when he reached his hundred.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been hugged that
hard,” Pope said. “It means so much
when your team-mates are that excited
for you, especially someone like Joe.
“When you score a hundred, you go
through phases. There’s always nerves
at the start of your innings, then once
you get into it you can have a bit of fun.
“I had been batting for a little bit
[when Root came to the crease] so I
realised that at the start of his innings
he would be in his own bubble. But then
things gradually free up and you get
into the partnership, chat a bit of rub-
bish in the middle and it just creates a
really relaxed environment, which ISafety-first approach? Not
with Ben, Baz and their
merry band of entertainers
Despite conceding 553,
gung-ho hosts try to
engineer victory on
pitch perfect for batting,
writes Simon Wilde
Stokes rues one
big shot too many
after falling for 46Rob Key advised us to “buckle up and
get ready for the ride” when he unveiled
Brendon McCullum as head coach to
work alongside Ben Stokes, and it has
taken only seven days of cricket to find
out quite how audacious their approach
is going to be. It is England Test cricket,
but not as we know it.
A more attacking mindset with the
ball may be considered both logical and
welcome, but the gung-ho way they
have gone about things with the bat is
altogether more controversial. That is
not to say it is wrong, but if England
were to lose this match, questions
would be asked about their tactics.
Most teams when faced with a score
the size of New Zealand’s would build
their response with care. “Safety first”
and “keep wickets in hand” would be
the buzz phrases in the dressing room.
But England did not bat like men
with those words at the front
of their minds. If the ball
was there to be hit, they
hit it.
You cannot say it did
not bring dividends.
Alex Lees played as
freely as he has in an
England shirt and
reached a Test-best 67.
Ollie Pope also recorded his
highest Test score and went
along at a strike rate in excess of 60.
Joe Root’s century off 116 balls was the
fastest of his 27 at this level. Had the ball
off which Stokes was caught near the
boundary instead gone for four it would
have given him his equal-fastest fifty in
Tests.
When Michael Vaughan’s England
side careered to 407 on the open-
ing day of the Edgbaston Test in
2005, it was reckoned the
batsmen were fuelling them-
selves on Red Bull, who were
then one of the team spon-
sors, but the McCullum-
Stokes gang seemed drunk
on triple espressos as they
plundered 383 on this
heady Sunday.
Surely when Stokes
was out, he must have
had some regrets at the
potential danger he had
left his side in, still 148 in
arrears. But possibly
not — and the imme-
diate danger did in-
deed pass.
This is certainly not
the way England would
have gone about things
under Chris Silverwood
and Root, and not how
most other teams,
even very good ones,
would have goneabout it either. When England were
beaten by Australia after making 551 at
Adelaide in 2006 (readers, I suspect,
will recall the game in question), Aus-
tralia proceeded with relative caution
in battling their way back into the game.
They took 165.3 overs to haul them-
selves to within 38 of England’s total.
Two years earlier, also in Adelaide,
when Australia were themselves beat-
en by India after scoring 556, India
went along at only 3.2 an over when
they replied with 523. Here at Trent
Bridge though, England were rattling
along at a significantly faster lick than
that, at almost 4.2 an over.
The mood was that of a run-chase,
and in a way it was, because England
appeared intent on engineering a posi-
tion from which they might win. Sea-
soned observers were left shaking their
heads in wonder.
It is remarkable to think how far we
have come in just a few months. Go
back to the early stages of the Ashes
and England’s openers Haseeb Ham-
eed and Rory Burns could barely land a
punch on the Australian bowling. The
idea of putting pressure back on to the
bowlers was laughable. Now look at
what is happening.
It should be pointed out that a
number of factors were in
favour of England’s bold-
ness of ambition here.
These are exceptionally
favourable batting con-
ditions. The Trent
Bridge outfield is like
glass, giving full value for
shots, and the ball has
come on to the bat nicely.
But England’s players, who
have repeatedly expressed a
desire to entertain, still had to put
words into action. These conditions
certainly helped them to do that. So far,
we have seen 142 fours and nine sixes
struck in the game.
The ball has swung at times for both
sides but neither the swing nor seam
movement has been marked, and this is
why we have had the extraordinary
state of affairs where after three
days only 15 wickets have fallen, all
to catches — only the second time
in history where this has happened
in Tests (the other instance being
a match between India and
West Indies at Nagpur in 1994).
Not only has no one been
bowled or leg-before, there
have been only four reviews for
the latter — two by England and
two by New Zealand — and of
these only one was close enough
to merit the fielding team retain-
ing their review.
The game might have been
different if more catches had
been held, and with the pitch
showing signs of turn the tem-
po of the game may yet
change, but the fundamental
truth remains that these
have been conditions in
which batsmen could attack
with confidence — which is
precisely what Ben and
Baz’s boys have done.
And one thing is for sure,
if New Zealand get into a
position to set a target,
these guys will go for it.4.14
England’s run rate in
this Test is their highest in
their first innings of a
match since a Test
against India in 2018ny
6407 on the open
gbaston Test in
reckoned the
uelling them-
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thesSTU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES116
Balls for Root’s century,
his fastest in Tests, beating
the 118 he took to reach
three figures against
Australia at Cardiff in
2015Most Test scores of 150-plus
2019191816151414141313Sachin Tendulkar (Ind, 1993-2010)Brian Lara (WI, 1993-2006)Kumar Sangakkara (SL, 2002-15)Don Bradman (Aus, 1930-48)Mahela Jayawardene (SL, 1998-2014)Ricky Ponting (Aus, 1999-2012)Jaques Kallis (SA, 2000-12)Virender Sehwag (Ind, 2003-10)Steve Waugh (Aus, 1989-2003)Joe Root (Eng, 2013-22)Younis Khan (Pak, 2002-17)best is as good as it gets
Urgent running,
classical drives and
back-foot punches
characterised Root’s
unbeaten 163Pope: I knew I could make it at No 3
continued from back
A clearly delighted Root hugs Popeguess worked for both of us.”
Pope was on holiday in Cornwall
when he received the call from Bren-
don McCullum to say he had been se-
lected in the Test squad and was going
to be batting at No 3.
“I was so excited, it took a bit of time
to sink in. We were just having a few
days away on the coast and I had a call
from a number I didn’t recognise, and it
was Brendon.
“I didn’t necessarily think it was
going to be amazing news at the time so
to get that phone call, I was buzzing
around having a little celebration while
strolling with my dog — I gave him a
fist bump — and then [McCullum]
said I was going to be batting at
three. Not once have I seen that as a
negative.
“Although I’d never done it before,
I’ve felt I can be a No 3 in red-ball crick-
et. I’ve made a few adjustments to my
game and my mindset and I’ve tried to
tighten up a few things. I can use this as
a massive advantage going forward.”