Simon Burnton has filed his match report, so that’s my cue to go and find some lunch (the umpires would approve). Thanks for your company and correspondence, especially during the many delays for rain, which, as so often, showed the OBO community at its entertaining best.
We now have a ten-day break before the second Test, which feels rather old-fashioned. But there’s a women’s T20 World Cup starting on Friday, when the hosts, England, face Sri Lanka at Edgbaston. And there may even be a World Cup coming up in another sport.
If you’re in the mood for more cricket today, do join Tanya Aldred on her ever-sparkling county blog. She’s just texted me to point out that if anybody is at Lord’s and hungry for some more action, they can get into Surrey v Hampshire at the Oval for a fiver. That’s a lot less than the 50pc refund they can claim from Lord’s for a shortened day. Sometimes cricket manages to get its public relations right. Meanwhile, here’s Simon.
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And here’s the winning captain, Ben Stokes. Perfect start to his summer? “Yeah, good result,” he says. “After a long time, a lot of things happening away from the field, to turn up and put in the performance that we did here – Test cricket is tough, you’re never sure what conditions you’ll be presented with, and I thought the way we identified the conditions and what we needed to do, we did that very quickly. And that was a huge contribution to why we’ve come out with a win. We had our plans for all the batters and we executed them probably as well as I’ve seen an England bowling unit do.”
Here’s Tom Latham, the losing captain. “I thought the way we set the tone on day one was outstanding, but we weren’t able to capitalise on it… The surface wasn’t easy [to bat on]. We know things will be different at the Oval.”
Mike Atherton mentions the five dropped catches, tactfully noting that New Zealand usually field well. “Yes, I mentioned that at the start… Catches can decide a Test match either way, especially when it’s a low-scoring affair. But it’s not for want of trying.” Asked if his batters could have been bolder and played more like Glenn Phillips, Latham says yes, “the way GP played was positive”, but “hindsight’s a wonderful thing”. True, but as Phillips had done the very same thing in the first innings, hindsight isn’t quite the right word.
Time for the presentations. The batsman of the match was clearly Glenn Phillips, who made the most runs (78) and was out only once. But the man of the match is… Ollie Robinson, for “taking the game by storm” with three wickets in his first over back after two years in the doghouse.
He says it was an amazing feeling. “Probably the worst nerves I’ve had before a game for England – couldn’t feel my legs. But the Lord’s crowd were unbelievable. Probably the loudest I’ve played under… I thought Emilio Gay was unbelievable too, he gave us enough runs to play with.”
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This was the 150th Test at Lord’s, and the second-shortest. It lasted only 166 overs, so it was essentially a two-day game that stretched over four days because of the rain – and some timidity from the umpires, who threw away an hour’s play yesterday morning by announcing an early lunch. Maybe they took the view that, on the Saturday of the Lord’s Test, lunch conquers all.
England were lethally efficient with the ball and just good enough with the bat. New Zealand, usually so good at squeezing all the juice from their own talents, got two things badly wrong: they kept dropping catches and they were way too defensive. Each time Glenn Phillips came in to bat, it was a different ball game because he went on the attack. And in the last innings, when there was a clear case for sending him up the order, they demoted him to No 8. He was left high and dry, 44 not out off only 52 balls.
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ENGLAND WIN BY 115 RUNS!
Wicket! Henry b Atkinson 0 (NZ 138 all out) It’s been a tough game for the stumps and Atkinson has just knocked over the middle one. England bring out the hugs and smiles that went missing in Australia, and Gus Atkinson raises the ball to the crowd. If Ollie Robinson was the star of the show on Thursday, Atkinson is now, once again, lording it at Lord’s.
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39th over: New Zealand 138-9 (Phillips 44, Henry 0) Phillips, tied down for four balls by Tongue, wriggles out of the straitjacket with a stylish steer for four. But he can’t find the single he wants from the last ball, a spicy bouncer, so Henry will have to face the music again.
Here’s Colum Fordham, who is to the OBO what EW Swanton once was to the BBC – the man with the magisterial overview. “I’ve admired Phillips’ doughty innings and while Conway was still in, the Kiwis had a slim hope,” he says. “Now it’s last rites in a low-scoring match on an uneven, almost unplayable pitch favouring the bowlers. So I come to my point. The Man of the Match award should go to a batsman and, bar a miracle of Homeric proportions from Phillips, I’d give it to Emilio Gay for a scintillating half-century on debut.” Not sure about scintillating, but he certainly showed composure.
“Could you give a shout-out to my wife Roberta for her ‘onomastico’, a name-day which is celebrated here in Naples? She has not even the faintest interest in cricket but it’s the spirit that counts.” It is indeed. But I’m not sure Jim Swanton ever gave his wife a shout-out.
39th over: New Zealand 134-9 (Phillips 40, Henry 0) Stokes attacks Henry with two short legs as well as three slips and a gully or two. Henry is equal to the task, wielding an understandably dead bat. It’s another maiden for Atkinson, who now has four for 30. That makes 25 wickets at Lord’s for him, at a ludicrous average: 9.88.
38th over: New Zealand 134-9 (Phillips 40, Henry 0) Stokes brings back Tongue, who loves the taste of rabbit pie. But first he has to bowl to Glenn Phillips. Stokes sends the fielders to the boundary and Phillips still beats them with a flashing square drive. When Tongue bowls a bouncer, Phillips coolly hooks him for six.
NZ now need 120, so 20 more sixes will do. But first Matt Henry has to face Atkinson.
37th over: New Zealand 124-9 (Phillips 30, Henry 0) Jamieson had just played his first attacking shot, usinghis height to get on top of the bounce and hit a classy cover drive. That could have been Zak Crawley. Then he got out: that could have been Crawley too. So England need only one more wicket, and NZ are still not halfway there.
Meanwhile, in an office at the Nursery End, the ECB’s bean-counters may be doing a little dance. We’ve had 15 overs today, which means the crowd won’t get full refunds like they did yesterday.
WICKET! Jamieson c Duckett b Atkinson 6 (NZ 124-9)
One brings three! And Jamieson falls to a bad ball. It was a juicy half-volley on middle-and-leg, and he chipped it straight to Ben Duckett at short midwicket.
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36th over: New Zealand 120-8 (Phillips 30, Jamieson 2) So far, Jamieson is being circumspect. He has clearly decided that he’s a proper batter now and needs to play himself in.
An interesting point comes in from Gary Naylor. “I’ve long held the belief,” he says, “that pitch reading is akin to astrology – an amusing distraction that should never be taken seriously, yet inexplicably is by some people. Did any of the seers predict anything like this on Thursday morning? I certainly don’t recall, the ‘Look up, not down’ at Lord’s the guideline. And if you couldn’t pick this pitch as being a shitheap challenging surface, when can you?”
35th over: New Zealand 118-8 (Phillips 29, Jamieson 1) So here’s Kyle Jamieson, who top-scored in NZ’s first innings with a buccaneering 38. We’ve only seen three sixes in this Test and Jamieson bagged the lot of them.
WICKET! N Smith c J Smith b Atkinson 4 (NZ 116-8)
One brings two! And one Smith sees off another as Atkinson goes wobble-seam and draws a regulation nick.
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Drinks: England back on top
34th over: New Zealand 111-7 (Phillips 27) Conway had just tucked Stokes for four to bring up the fifty partnership – 52 off 10.4 overs. He scored twice as fast with Phillips as he had with anyone else. But then he tried to clip a straight, full ball and edged it off the back of the bat to gully, where Bethell, such a natural in the field, swooped to claim a low catch. So Stokes has his first scalp of the match and England are back on course for a big win.
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WICKET! Conway c Bethell b Stokes 41 (NZ 111-7)
Just when England need something special, Jacob Bethell supplies it with a diving catch at gully.
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33rd over: New Zealand 105-6 (Conway 37, Phillips 26) Atkinson, bowling to Conway, manages a maiden. England have slowed the run rate in the past two or three overs, though I suspect they’d happily trade a few more fours for the wicket of Phillips.
The next email is short and to the point. “Hello Tim. Bring on Bashir! Regards, Matthew Doherty.”
32nd over: New Zealand 105-6 (Conway 37, Phillips 26) A ball from Stokes keeps low, as so many have, but Conway is able to get down to it. He has a crabby stance, not easy on the eye but very handy on this track.
“A big shout-out,” says Adam Simpson, “to my old mate Rob in Istanbul (over 27). My wife Çağla also says a big hello to him and his wife, Nuriye. We have an extremely informal and light-hearted running competition to see if we can both get mentioned on the same OBO. We’ve managed it more than once or twice down the years!” It looks as if you may also have something in common on the marital front. I’d like to know it this is a coincidence or a conspiracy.
31st over: New Zealand 104-6 (Conway 36, Phillips 26) It’s a double change as Gus Atkinson takes over from Tongue at the pavilion end. Conway tries another stroke in front of the wicket, an off-drive that brings him three. Phillips lives dangerously as Atkinson’s high arm exploits the uneven bounce in this fickle surface, but he survives.
30th over: New Zealand 101-6 (Conway 33, Phillips 26) Stokes makes his first bowling change of the day, taking Robinson off and bringing himself on. So far in this match, he’s been the only bowler apart from the injured Matt Henry not to be much of a threat. Phillips sizes him up and then plays a classy back-foot flick to the rope in front of the Grandstand. That brings up New Zealand’s hundred. If they’d sent Phillips in as a nighthawk on Friday, instead of O’Rourke as a nightwatchman, they might be cruising to victory.
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29th over: New Zealand 96-6 (Conway 32, Phillips 22) Conway is now so relaxed that he’s prepared to hit the ball in front of the wicket. Facing Tongue, he plays a straight push back past the bowler towards the pavilion. On most outfields that would be four, but Conway has to settle for three.
Tongue then raps Phillips on the pad with a big inswinger. There’s only a stifled appeal and Rod Tucker, standing in his 100th Test, shakes his head. Stokes, to his team mates’ surprise, calls for a review. Sure enough, it did too much and was missing leg stump.
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28th over: New Zealand 92-6 (Conway 29, Phillips 21) Robinson, with Smith back up to the stumps, restricts each batter to a single. Conway again tries to withdraw the bat and again isn’t quick enough, but this time the deflection goes downwards and the ball bounces before it reaches the slips.
27th over: New Zealand 90-6 (Conway 28, Phillips 20) Tongue continues, keeping Phillips quiet for three balls before he manages a square drive for two. It’s been a different game since he came in.
Meanwhile an email arrives that has a lot going on it. “How’s the weather looking at Lord’s?” asks Rob Lewis. (Grey, but dry.) “It’s a glorious day here in Istanbul. Shame I’m conducting oral exams for Cambridge University.
“A shout out to my wife Nuriye, who is picking tea 1,100km east of here on the Black Sea coast in her parents’ fields, probably dodging showers like they were in London yesterday.”
If there was a prize for the most interesting mention of tea in a cricket email, Rob would have won it.
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26th over: New Zealand 87-6 (Conway 27, Phillips 18) Phillips, not bothering to move his feet, clubs a length ball from Robinson past mid-off. He adds a single, so does the newly liberated Conway, and this partnership has raced to 29, which makes it the equal highest of the innings. Jamie Smith retreats to stand next to the slips, as if to concede that New Zealand have seized the initiative. Phillips celebrates with another crunching drive. This is more like it!
25th over: New Zealand 77-6 (Conway 26, Phillips 9) Conway, facing Tongue, decides that he may as well come to the party. First he steers a four to gully’s right, then he tries to leave a lifter, reacts too late, pats it to Harry Brook at second slip – and is dropped as Brook can only tip it over the bar.
24th over: New Zealand 71-6 (Conway 20, Phillips 9) Robinson continues, moving the ball both ways. Phillips finds the boundary in no time – but only off the inside edge. And again, with his first shot of some authority, punched past cover. “You need to be playing Twenty20 here,” says Stuart Broad, and Phillips, unlike the rest of the Kiwis, seems to agree. He’s been there five minutes and has already made more runs than Latham, O’Rourke, Ravindra and Mitchell put together.
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23rd over: New Zealand 63-6 (Conway 20, Phillips 1) Glenn Phillips, so unfazed in the first innings, starts purposefully again with a clip for a single. But he’s coming in very low in the order… Conway needs to stay with him.
Josh Tongue spoke to Sky this morning and revealed one of the secrets of his success: at his mark, he has a smiley face, “in case I get a bit down”. Not that he’s needed in this match.
WICKET! Blundell LBW b Tongue 4 (New Zealand 58-6)
Here we go! Tongue nips one back down the slope, Blundell is pinned on the crease and although he discusses it with Conway, he doesn’t bother to review.
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22nd over: New Zealand 55-5 (Conway 19, Blundell 2) Robinson is on the spot but Tom Blundell keeps the first three balls out easily enough, even with Jamie Smith breathing down his neck.
The players are out there. And the ball is in the hands of Ollie Robinson, who has an over to finish.
The first email of the day comes from John Starbuck. “Good morning. In the Preamble you aver that England’s three main seamers will get the job done.” I’m not a betting man, but I’d like to know what the odds may be on Shoaib Bashir getting an over or two?”
Good question! Almost as long as the odds on an email including the word “aver”.
By the way, if you make the minimum 50 wickets rather than 80, Robinson is no longer the best in the last 100 years. He’s not even the best in this England dressing-room: it’s Gus Atkinson, with Josh Tongue just behind him. And, rather more surprisingly, Brydon Carse is in the top four.
What about Jimmy Anderson, or Ian Botham? Not even in the top 20. Full list here.
On Sky, Mike Atherton has been chairing a chat about the papers. With actual printed copies! Good to see that they still have a role to play.
Atherton homed in on a great finding in the Sunday Times. Ollie Robinson is now England’s best bowler, by Test strike rate, since the first world war (min. 80 wickets). Robinson has a wicket every 47 balls, two fewer than the late, great Fred Trueman. If only Fred were here now, on the radio, to tell us how much harder it was in his day and he just doesn’t know what’s going off on Stats Guru.
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Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to a Test that has somehow dribbled into a fourth day. We’ve had a wicket roughly every four overs, but the rain gods have allowed only five sessions’ play. England are well on top, yet they could still lose.
They need to take five more wickets before New Zealand score 199 more runs. So far, between the showers, the New Zealanders have managed only 168 for 15 wickets, so 199 for four may sound like a stretch. But there’s more batting left than you might think because they sent in a nightwatchman, way back on Friday evening.
They’ve got an opener, Devon Conway, who’s still there and who made 200 on his Test debut at Lord’s. He may have added only 23, 3, 13, 1 and 19* at this address since, but that could mean that he’s overdue another big one. And the two men who bashed most of the runs in NZ’s first innings, Glenn Phillips and Kyle Jamieson, are still to come. It’s as if their captain, Tom Latham, has done by accident what Don Bradman once did deliberately and got the batting order the wrong way up.
On a pitch that has been dry, uneven and widely derided, England’s bowlers have only had to look at the off bail to be lethal. Ollie Robinson, when he switched to the Nursery End yesterday and Jamie Smith stood up to the stumps, promptly took two wickets in four balls. He has seven for 57 in the match, Gus Atkinson four for 25, Josh Tongue four for 55. Only Ben Stokes (none for 22) has been firing blanks.
Robinson has never taken eight wickets in a Test, let alone ten, so he will still be hungry today, and the chances are that he, Atkinson and Tongue will finish the job. But a low-scoring match can be won by one fearless knock, as England found in the last first Test they played, at Perth, when Travis Head beat them at their own game. So you never know.
Play resumes at 11am BST and the forecast, thankfully, is as dry as the pitch.
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