England 465. New Zealand 254 & 77-1
Is there a greater pleasure in life than cracking open a cold beer, or a glass of crisp wine, on a Friday evening and watching live test cricket? It happens so infrequently. Other than tours of the West Indies, New Zealand is the only time we get to watch England play at a civilized time (when work commitments are over and the rest of the family are in bed).
It’s even better when the cricket’s from Wellington or Dunedin, where the scenery is beautiful. HD television has really added to the experience. Test matches staged at India’s concrete jungles, and Australia’s modern multi-purpose sports stadiums (Adelaide excepted) have a certain quality I suppose, especially if it’s a full house, but nothing beats test cricket from New Zealand when it comes to unwinding at the end of a hard day.
It helps if England are winning too; which is why yesterday was especially satisfying.
Yesterday’s play was noticeable for two things really: Broad’s return to form and Panesar’s belated decision to bowl a little slower. The former was particularly welcome.
I’ve been critical of Broad in the past. His decision to play through injury last summer did the side a huge disservice. When bowling at medium pace, Broad’s was about as likely to pick up wickets as the Tories are to win the next election; or for that matter, Nick Clegg being liked by students again, or Ed Milliband winning a Brother of the Year award.
However, when Broad is running in hard and bowling with intelligence (which means pitching it up now and again) he looks rather useful. Yesterday was a prime example. If he can rediscover his touch with the bat, people will finally stop questioning his place in the side.
It was also refreshing to see Monty vary his pace a little. Shane Warne once famously argued that Monty plays the same test match over and over. His performance in Dunedin was a prime example: the Montster bowled as though he was still at Mumbai.
Thankfully, the coaches have finally had a word in his ear. Nobody expects Monty metamorphose into Phil Tufnell between test matches – he’ll probably always bowl at a relatively brisk pace rather than using flight to deceive batsmen – but it’s not unreasonable to ask an experienced international spinner to employ some subtle variations.
Monty actually gave the ball a little more air yesterday, and he finally slowed things down too. Perhaps the embarrassment of being out-bowled by Bruce Martin finally got to him.
With New Zealand still 134 runs behind, England have a great chance to win this test match. But it’s not going to be easy: the pitch still has the gradient of a galette, and our four man attack will be getting weary. Monty will need to bowl long spells.
However, all this could academic. According the bureau of meteorology, the next two days at Wellington are going to be wetter than an episode of Dawson’s Creek.
James Morgan
Yep, great to see what Broad can do when he uses his brain and realises he’s not a 90mph enforcer. Credit to Monty too – on a pitch that gave him little assistance, he did his job by bottling up one end and allowing the quicks to attack from the other, and deserved his wicket after tea. Given the weather forecast Cook had no choice but to enforce the follow-on, but it’ll be bloody hard work bowling them out twice on this surface.
I thought Monty was poor and Martin has out bowled him so far. His wicket came from more variation in pace but he quickly reverted to normal speeds. Why cant Finn pitch the ball up a bit? It looked impressive with his bounce but ultimately not that threatening.