English juggernaut rolls at the Mount

By Rahul Patil

England 1^st innings 325 for 9 declared in 58.2 overs (Duckett 84, Brook 89, Wagner 4/81) vs New Zealand 37 for 3 in 18 overs (Conway 17*, Anderson 2/10)

 There is something about the first day of a new test series. I find it similar to the first day of a new school year. An air of curiousness. Which class will I be in? Who will be my teacher and classmates? The crisply ironed uniform and the smell of newly covered notebooks are ones that I will never ever forget. Likewise, the anticipation of the start of a new test series, the freshness of the pitch and the smell of a well-manicured outfield will stay with me forever no matter how many live matches I watch.

It’s the simple things in sport that make a huge difference. Neil Wagner found that out in the harshest possible way picking up a wicket off a no ball. A potential maiden wicket tuned into a 14 run over. Ask a sprinter the pain of losing the gold due to a fraction of a second. Ask a bowler the pain of missing out on a test wicket due to a few centimeters.

Ben Stokes asked his team to put on a show. Not that Ben Duckett ever needs a license to attack. It’s still early days but you can already see #BenSehwag and #VirenderDuckett being mentioned on twitter. Duckett’s destructive 84 was the highlight of the 1^st session. I used the word destructive because aggressive is what everyone else at the other end was. Pope, Root, Stokes, Foakes were all aggressive.

Harry Brook was aggressive too. But along with that he was classy, elegant, stylish and graceful. He’s already been labelled as a three format future great. Already been compared to Virat Kohli. Early days and huge shoes to fill but boy does he look ready. He was lucky at times but then luck more often than not favors the bold. He treated the crowd to 89 of Yorkshire’s finest.

How do you tell that the fielding side is struggling? When the batting side scores close to 6 runs per over in test cricket is an obvious one. The subtle clues are when the first maiden of the day is bowled in the 47^th over. Another indicator is when fine leg is constantly on the move due to a right left combination in the middle. A poor over rate is a third indicator. When you lose 11 overs of play at the end of the day even after going into 30 minutes of extra time it is just lazy. When you are trying to attract crowds to test cricket the least they expect is to see 90 overs being bowled in a day’s play for their money’s worth.

As a captain when you win the toss and bowl first you fancy your chances of dismissing the opposition. Southee and the blackcaps almost managed to do that in 59 overs. The problem was that by then the opposition had got to 325. When you are asked to bat on day one after losing the toss most teams would take 325 with both hands. I do feel for Southee though. He’s leading a heavily depleted side that includes two debutants. There is no place to hide in test cricket. If you are not up to the mark it has the tendency to expose you very badly.

In the post-match press conference Harry Brook confirmed that England had no intentions of declaring when he and Foakes were at the crease. But as soon as Brook departed the plan changed and England decided to declare and have a crack at the blackcaps top order in favorable conditions. Another masterstroke by Baz and Ben. Ask yourself the simple question “What will the opposition not want to do right now?” and make them do exactly that.

If the first 59 overs of the day seemed like three T20 innings the remaining 18 reminded us of good old fashioned test cricket. Anderson, Broad & Robinson all had the new pink ball on a string. Suddenly it looked like a different pitch. There was swing, seam and bounce and there was an air of inevitability in the wickets that followed.

So what will day two bring? For starters batting at two o’clock in the afternoon will be a lot easier. New Zealand are still well and truly in this game but to make a match of it they will need a couple of big partnerships. England on the other hand will be wanting more of the same from their bowlers. Such is the attractive nature of their play that even the rain gods decided to stay away from the Bay Oval and watch the cricket instead.

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