The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 1GS 3

England v New Zealand: Second Test Sport

Despite his side’s difficulties in dismiss-

ing New Zealand the England bowling

coach Jon Lewis insisted that it had

been a day of fine margins.

“I thought it was a really honest day’s

work from the fast bowlers, and Jack

[Leach],” he said. “They worked incred-

ibly hard but were just a bit short today.

I thought we offered threat all day.

“Unfortunately, we had a few missed

chances. I thought we could have easily

bowled them out for 250 and it would

have been a totally different day.”

The former England seam bowler

said that choosing to bowl first was a

sign of the mentality of England’s new

leadership. “The important thing about

the toss was that it was the aggressive

choice,” he said. “Saying, ‘We have

come here to try and bowl New Zealand

out — to put them into battle.’ ”

After the highs of Lord’s, when

England were near-perfect in the field,

this was a more difficult day. Four

catches were dropped and there were

some sloppy misfields, but Lewis said

that the message from Brendon

McCullum in the dressing room would

remain relentlessly positive.

Lewis suggested that the head coach

would remind them that they were in a

similar position in the first Test when

Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell put

on a big partnership on the second day,

only for England to bounce back the

next morning. “I am predicting he will

say something like, ‘These guys were

250 for four last week and we bowled

them out for under 300, so we can bowl

them out again.’ ”

Lewis admitted that there was an

issue with the Dukes balls going soft

and out of shape, and conceded that the

freak incident when Mitchell struck a

six straight into a spectator’s pint of

cider had also had some effect.

“There was a little bit less swing [after

the ball got soaked] but also the balls are

going soft,” Lewis said. “When the ball

goes soft, it’s hard to get past the bat, but

every game the ball has done that so far

— so we just have to find a way to bowl

with what we’re given.”

Elizabeth Ammon

is great but it is hard to fathom why Stokes chose to bowl

too slow for batting to be hard going.
All of the New Zealanders got starts.
This was the first time in three
Tests as captain that Stokes had
inserted the opposition and, like
many leaders before him, he had the
opportunity to repent at leisure.
The blustery nature of the day did
not help: the ball swung only
sporadically and not at all after being
inadvertently dunked in a pint of
cider. These were not classic bowling
conditions. Putting in your opponents
and failing to take many wickets is
one kind of failure; watching them
career along at 3.7 an over is even
more painful. Such a tempo increases
the chances of a definite outcome to
the game, and by the close it was New
Zealand who were favourites to come
out on top. When Ricky Ponting
opted to bowl first at Edgbaston in

2005, it was the speed with which

England racked up 407 in a day —

hitting 54 fours and ten sixes — that

created the opportunity for their

bowlers to win the game. There was

also a game at Leeds in 2015, when

New Zealand were put in by Alastair

Cook and sped to 350 at almost five

an over. England matched this score

precisely, but New Zealand held the

initiative and ran out easy winners.

Ponting may have been motivated

by a desire to keep England’s batsmen

under pressure and this led him to

ignore the impact of an injury to

Glenn McGrath before the start of

play, when he trod on a ball, putting

him out of the game. Cook may have

been persuaded by Headingley’s

reputation as a seamer-friendly

environment. He was half-right:

Stuart Broad took five wickets, but at

an economy rate of 6.34. Why Stokes

bowled here, beyond the desire to

take the aggressive option, is hard to

fathom. After all, he was the captain

with the specialist spinner in his side,

so choosing to bowl second and

fourth would have potentially been

the better thing to do by Jack Leach.

Of course, he may also have been

swayed by the assistance Trent Bridge

has so often given James Anderson

and Stuart Broad. Perhaps he thought

New Zealand were vulnerable after

the late withdrawal of Kane

Williamson. Any number of

considerations can influence a

decision but a ground’s reputation as

a batting or bowling venue is perhaps

one of the hardest to ignore.

Historically, the Oval and Old

Trafford have been good places to bat,

so it is unsurprising that captains

years its capacity to influence the

outcome has grown markedly.

Whereas between 1980 and 2014

the team batting first won 32 per cent,

and the team batting second 36 per

cent, since 2014 those figures have

respectively shifted to 55 per cent and

31 per cent. The authors speculated

that the reason is to do with the decline

in the draw – due to faster scoring –

and the heightened role of spin, partly

due to the support it receives from

DRS, towards the back end of games.

So any captain these days ought to

have a compelling reason not to bat

first. But success also depends on the

strength of the team. Steve Waugh

won all 11 Tests in which he decided

to bowl first and Michael Vaughan

never lost any of the eight when he

did so, but both of them commanded

exceptional bowling attacks.

rarely choose to field first there. It has

happened only 15 times in 103 Tests at

the Oval and ten times in 81 Tests at

Old Trafford, and rarely worked out

well (in fact, no side has ever won at

Old Trafford after inserting the

opposition). Lord’s under cloud can be

a bounty for seam and swing, which is

no doubt why almost 30 per cent of

captains bowl first there, just ahead of

Edgbaston (28 per cent) and

Headingley (23 per cent).

The figure for Trent Bridge is 19 per

cent, although Stokes is the sixth

captain in the past nine Tests here to

want to field (only India, in 2007, and

England against Australia, in 2015,

went on to win). In their 2021 book,

Hitting Against the Spin: How Cricket

Really Works, Nathan Leamon and Ben

Jones deconstructed the impact of the

toss and concluded that in recent

back into bad habits of old

Root was made to rue

the costly drop of

Mitchell, who was on

three when he edged

Stokes to first slip, left,

and ended the day 81

not out. He also

missed a tough chance

to remove Blundell,

who reverse-swept the

spin of Leach on 47,

right. Crawley should

have caught Nicholls,

above, for 17 after he

edged Broad — and

the same bowler was

left frustrated again

when he drew Blundell

— now on 63 — into an

edge, only for it to fly

through a despairing

cordon, below

Scoreboard

NEW ZEALAND First Innings R

T W M Latham

c Potts b Anderson

Pulled to mid-wicket

26

W A Young

c Crawley b Stokes

Tight line, diving catch at second slip

47

D P Conway

c Foakes b Anderson

Hit the seam, thick inside edge

46

H M Nicholls

c Foakes b Stokes

Nipped off seam, fiddled through

30

D J Mitchell

not out

81

@T A Blundell

not out

67

Extras

(lb 16, nb 5)

21

TOTAL (4 wkts, 87 overs) 318

M G Bracewell, K A Jamieson,

T G Southee, M J Henry and T A Boult

to bat.

Fall of wickets 1-84, 2-84, 3-161, 4-169.

Bowling Anderson 18-6-42-2; Broad

18-4-74-0; Potts 18-4-69-0; Stokes

12-0-40-2; Leach 18-3-62-0; Root 3-0-15-0.

England A Z Lees, Z Crawley, O J D Pope,

J E Root, J M Bairstow, *B A Stokes,

@B T Foakes, M J Potts, M J Leach,

S C J Broad, J M Anderson.

Umpires M Gough (England) and

P Reiffel (Australia).

First Test England won by five wickets

(Lord’s). Third Test: June 23–27

(Headingley).

‘They could

have been

250 all out’

TIMES PHOTOGRAPHER BRADLEY ORMESHER; MATT IMPEY/SHUTTERSTOCK; SHAUN BOTTERILL/GETTY IMAGES; STU FORSTER/GETTY IMAGES