England is in deep trouble as New Zealand played a solid 1st innings knocks on day 1 of the second Test at Trent Bridge, courtesy to Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell for their decent innings of 81 and 67 respectively.
England is in deep trouble as New Zealand played a solid 1st innings knocks on day 1 of the second Test at Trent Bridge, courtesy to Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell for their decent innings of 81 and 67 respectively.
“I thought there was the threat all day. The boys went past the edge of the bat. We could have easily bowled them out for 250, and we’d be in a very different position.”
Jon Lewis, England’s bowling coach made a fair assessment of the team’s performance but the reality stands different. New Zealand finds themselves in a comfortable position after ending their day on 318/4, courtesy to Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell for their decent knocks.
The duo started their innings from the second half of the day, putting on an unbeaten 145 runs stand, negating a tricky 45-over phase on an opening day at Trent Bridge after the team once reduced to 169/4 after being asked to bat first.
“I thought it was an honest day’s work,”
he confessed.
“We were just a little bit short of what we would have liked. The most important thing about the toss as it was an aggressive play. We were coming out to try to bowl New Zealand out. Unfortunately, we missed a couple of chances.
The English bowlers tried their best to bowl a fuller length to take the most advantage of the swing but in return, they kept driving for boundaries. The visitors smashed as many as 43 boundaries and two maximums in only 87 overs during day 1’s play on Friday (June 10).
Devon Conway, the New Zealand all-rounder felt the tactic worked in their favor instead. The New Zealand batters managed to get the start even after none from the top order registered a half-century.
“Even in the first Test we felt they bowled quite full,”
he said.
“By bowling that, it provided scoring opportunities and we tried to put pressure back on the bowlers. They resorted to bowling short balls at us, and that allowed us to score again.”
Conway also expressed a little shock at the umpires – Michael Gough and Paul Reiffel – decision of not changing the ball after one of the sixes from Jack Leach, landed in the cider pint of the spectators in the 56th over.
“We were quite shocked that they didn’t change the ball, we’ve all got Covid protocols put in place and thought they might look to have changed it,”
Conway said.
“Certainly, it didn’t swing as much, so Daryl played a very smart role there to make sure the ball doesn’t swing as much!
“It was an interesting period and I did see the umpire try to dry it as much as he could with a towel. If that did play a role on the ball I don’t know, but it was a funny passage of play.”
On a lighter note, he added,
“I certainly hope he does (offers a replacement glass to the spectator), that will be the right thing, part of our culture to do that sort of thing,”
he said.
“I must say, Tim Southee did spot it quite well, he called it straight away when it landed in the beer cup, cider cup, whatever it was. It’s funny how it happened and it was good camera work from the cameraman to capture that.”