It may have been the pitch rather than any of the players that dominated this match, but for all that they repeatedly cursed its capriciousness England will have forgiven it all the moment they won the first Test of the summer by bowling New Zealand out before lunch on the fourth day to win by 115 runs. As Ben Stokes said, given all that his team has endured over the past six months, this week was all about the win.
On a pitch that was consistent only in its awkwardness, batting, against an array of bowlers ideally suited to profit from it, ranged throughout from difficult to impossible. As such, the tourists, starting the day on 55 for five and with 199 still required, never looked likely to turn the game on its head. But after Tom Blundell became the 11th batter to fall lbw eight balls into the day – never in a Test in this country have so many wickets fallen either bowled or lbw – Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips stayed together long enough to make the possibility at least be contemplated. In the end they added 53 for the seventh wicket, the second-highest partnership of a match in which most individual innings were marked more than anything by their brevity.
Under thick cloud Phillips showed New Zealand another way of approaching their goal, defending whenever the ball targeted his stumps, hoping that none of those deliveries behaved so extraordinarily that he could not keep it out, and attacking anything that strayed. As demonstrated by Kyle Jamieson in their first innings – albeit aided by England’s perplexing decision to abandon the approach that had allowed them to slice through most of the tourists’ batting top and middle order in favour of slow-paced bouncers – attack was very much the best form of defence on this surface. Get going, or get out.
Over the entire match shots of impeccable timing and class were extremely rare and Phillips produced a couple, a clip through midwicket off Stokes and a delicious square cut off Josh Tongue standing out. It was unpredictable bounce rather than lateral movement that most discomfited him, and he was bemused both by a ball from Tongue that kept unexpectedly low – to which he reacted with a flailing bat and a loud curse – and one from Gus Atkinson that bounced unexpectedly high and thumped him in the hand.
Conway faced 91 balls for his 41 but needed a bit of luck to get there, being dropped by Harry Brook at second slip when on 24. It was a rare error in the field from England while their opponents’ catching was relatively error-strewn, and in the end New Zealand may reflect that this more than anything proved decisive. – Tom Latham, their captain, said that there were “fine moments in a game that can swing a Test match either way … I think those small moments are really important and we just weren’t able to capitalise on them”. As it turned out Brook’s blunder only served to give Jacob Bethell a chance to make eye-catching amends: Stokes found a leading edge and the 22-year-old took an excellent low catch at gully.
Nathan Smith lasted only three balls before feathering a catch to his namesake Jamie, bringing out Jamieson and uniting Phillips with a second player determined to attack. Too late, alas, and far too brief: Jamieson, seizing on a bit of width, cut Atkinson for four but soon afterwards clipped the same bowler to midwicket, where Ben Duckett took a straightforward catch.
Matt Henry, particularly given his back problems, was unlikely to significantly delay what was now inevitable. He lasted 10 balls before being bowled by Atkinson, who in the process became the fourth bowler to earn a place on the honours board in this match. It is the third time Atkinson, who is also on the batting honours board, has earned a gilded place on the most coveted plaque in bowling, – particularly remarkable given that he has played here only three times. Phillips was left unbeaten on 44 off 52 deliveries.
This was the 150th Test to be played at Lord’s, and, excluding two drawn games that never got beyond the first innings, the second shortest after Australia’s visit in 1888. Precisely 166 overs were bowled across the four innings, meaning only rain pushed the game beyond its second day.
It was certainly entertaining, in its slapstick way, for all that its dramatic peak came in the second over of the second innings on the first day, when Ollie Robinson on his return to the Test team took three wickets in his first six balls. But the pitch has been widely and rightly criticised, and for Lord’s the match has been both embarrassing and expensive.
Just under 10 overs bowled on an almost washed-out third day meant full refunds for all ticket-holders, and after five wickets fell in 19 on the fourth another day’s attendees will get reimbursed, if only for half of the ticket price. The early conclusion, before another fine crowd had a chance to buy lunch, meant drinks went unsold and food was redirected from the ground’s ambitiously-priced outlets to local charities. Hopefully everyone will get their teeth into something more substantial when the teams reconvene at the Oval.
