New blood and fresh minds came to the rescue alongside Jonny Bairstow. Mark Wood galloped to his maiden half-century and then Jack Leach nobly hung around against the second new ball, which he seemed to negotiate with fewer alarms than the proper batsmen did against the first one in the morning. The new pair, uncluttered by recent failures and eager to justify a place in the side, did Bairstow and England a favour as 164 for seven became 290 for eight at the end of the first day’s play.
Wood, whose previous best Test score was 32, is seldom seen without a smile. “I’ve got a Test 50 before a five-for. That’s the wrong way round,” he said afterwards and then spent most of the time praising his partner, Bairstow. “It was nice to have Jonny at the other end. We first played against each other as 12-year-olds when Northumberland met Yorkshire.”
Wood reckoned that the familiarity helped. “We were having a bit of a laugh out there. ‘Oh look there’s another bouncer from Waggers [Neil Wagner]’ so that helped us to forget the situation and just concentrate on each other.”
Wood outscored Bairstow in their 95-run partnership, hitting seven fours mostly off the middle and one six, which was definitely came out of the sweet spot. “Jonny constructs an innings – he’s a batsman,” added Wood. “I chanced my arm a bit. Jonny’s done it before and it was great to be there with him. He sticks his chest out after the bouncer and there’s a little bit of arrogance. I like that and sometimes the bowler can get a bit frustrated. I had a great time with him except for my last ball [Wood was bowled by Tim Southee with the final ball of the 79th over]. That was a bit rubbish to have Leachy come in for the new ball.”
Wood admitted that he started as a batsman as a kid and at the Hagley Oval he played some copybook drives. “The trouble is,” he said, “when I get to 20 I think I’m like Bradman and play too many shots. Sometimes I get ahead of myself. There were a lot of bouncers, especially when Wagner was bowling, and that may have helped. At least I knew where the ball was likely to be.” It was one of those bouncers that Wood cracked over ropes at square leg.
