The word “gimmick” has been doing the rounds among the England camp regarding day-night Test cricket but as Stuart Broad set off on one his trademark surges, sending zing bails flying in the darkness and New Zealanders on their way, there was a sense the format might be growing on them.
A run of five straight pink-ball defeats probably informed this stance yet, equally, this is an England team that under Ben Stokes cares little for history. That is unless it’s Broad rolling out a few of the old hits, with his four-wicket burst on the third evening in Mount Maunganui putting a 10th win from 11 Test matches within touching distance.
Set a mammoth 394 for victory in this series opener, New Zealand needed plenty to go their way during a two-hour examination under lights. Instead they found themselves popped in the blender and Broad gleefully pressing the button marked “frappé”, his figures of four for 21 from 10 overs – plus a wicket for Ollie Robinson – leaving their scorecard a miserable-looking 63 for five at stumps.
Day-nighters may be primarily designed for the television audience but there is no question they produce some stunning visuals. There were plenty to chose from here, Broad clean-bowling the top three, Devon Conway (2), Kane Williamson (0) and Tom Latham (15), in the space of four overs by nipping the pink Kookaburra about at will.
Robinson chimed in with the removal of Henry Nicholls, a classic edge from the left-hander sent into to the gloves of Ben Foakes, with Broad then capping off a memorable day for both himself and the travelling supporters as Tom Blundell, a first-innings centurion, became the fourth New Zealander to suffer a stumplosion.
“New Zealand is a special country for us,” said Broad, the first breakthrough having taken his famous partnership with Jimmy Anderson past the record 1,001 wickets shared by Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath in Test matches together.
“Back in 2008 at Wellington, we came into the team together and to go past two heroes of mine growing up, McGrath and Warne ... well, certainly we’re not in the category or quality of those two. They were absolutely heroic in what they did for the game.
“But I feel very lucky to have been born in the same era as Jimmy. I’ve learnt so much from him and he’s probably the reason I’m still going at 36. He’s a great leader to follow.”
England had timed this late burst to perfection, it must be said. They amassed 374 all out in 73.5 overs with a collective effort that struck a balance between calculated accumulation and plenty of the attacking brio which has now become their default.
Ollie Pope crackled first-thing for 49 runs and Joe Root top-scored with 57, while Harry Brook passed 50 for the sixth time in his first eight Test innings with a powerful 41-ball 54. But plenty was owed to Foakes for calming chiselling 51 from 80 balls which, allied with 31 from Stokes and 39 from Robinson, ensured New Zealand started under lights.
Conditions helped their cause, no question – so, too, the New Zealand attack. Blair Tickner will surely hold his spot next week when Matt Henry returns – some fine deliveries in his three for 55 are likely to see Scott Kuggeleijn drop out – but, overall, they are badly lacking the class of the now freelance Trent Boult, who has been 20 minutes down the road.
Wickets did fall with enough regularity to give Tim Southee the odd taste of Michael Corleone’s angst in The Godfather Part III. But once Jack Leach was the last man out, stumped, the hosts were facing a task as steep as the climbing wall in the Bay Oval sports complex: the highest successful fourth-innings run chase in their history and the highest by any team in this part of the world.
The signs around Bay Oval read: “Stay safe and keep your eye on the ball,” and once Neil Wagner had sent “Nighthawk” Broad the way of Speckled Jim on seven, it was advice well heeded. Six sixes flew into the burbling grass banks, with Pope first to take the aerial route in an early assault on Wagner that saw the left-arm bumper merchant leak 104 runs from his first 11 overs.
Beyond the hapless Wagner recreating Boult’s infamous stumble over the boundary in the 2019 World Cup final, the six that will doubtless have prompted the most chatter in the dressing room after stumps came from Stokes. Coming in at No 8 after apparently being, ahem, indisposed at the fall of the fifth wicket in the first session, the all-rounder whipped Kuggeleijn behind square to clear the rope for the 108th time in Test cricket.
McCullum sat there applauding heartily from the pavilion, having promised the captain a bottle of red wine once his world record was broken. “It’s consuming his life,” he joked when Stokes ended last year’s Pakistan tour on level terms and in a wine country like New Zealand, a decent drop should now change hands in the coming days.
So much comes back to McCullum’s positive reinforcement, an example of which came after Root fell to a reverse scoop on day one. The head coach is understood to have sought him out for praise straight after, reminding him of the runs the shot has delivered over the past nine months – plus the runs the subsequent deployment of a third man has then helped unlock elsewhere when teams respond.
Expect more to come, therefore, even if the shot once again brought about Root’s demise in the final over of an opening session which saw England trowel 158 runs on to their overnight lead of 98. This time it was off the spinner, Michael Bracewell, when he feathered behind and the ball ricocheted off the wicketkeeper Blundell to first slip.
This England team are going to keep producing such maddening moments, with conventional notions like playing for the interval having been frog-marched out of the door. Given the results, and their plight 12 months ago, it’s becoming harder to quibble.
Source: The Guardian
BDST: 1716 HRS, FEB 18, 2023
MN
