England’s abominable overseas record continues to deteriorate. They have now lost 10 of their last 12 matches away from home. Despite a resolute innings of 66 in four and a half hours from Ben Stokes in his first Test of the winter,New Zealand finally claimed the victory that had seemed such a formality in those dim and distant days when the headline news in Australia was about a threatened strike among Customs and Border Protection staff at airports this Easter.
New Zealand won by an innings and 49 runs. They were made to toil, unlike in England’s calamitous first innings, but they were more than prepared to do so in the first floodlit Test on Kiwi soil. There was no forlorn pursuit of reverse swing here, but with Trent Boult and Neil Wagner busting a gut they eventually found a way through England’s lineup. The pitch was true, the batsmen far more resilient than on Thursday and they only had just over an hour to spare. But – deservedly – they got there in the end.
Boult purred to the wicket tirelessly throughout the game and was the obvious recipient of the man of the match award. He bowls in the classic manner; Wagner, an irrepressible competitor much beloved in Chelmsford as well as Christchurch, has a different, almost unique method. Mostly he bowls bouncers but they are extremely well-directed ones. He charges in with hostile intent for over after over. He even races back to his mark with unrelenting purpose. Wagner took just three wickets in the match but one of them critically – with his last ball before dinner – was that of Stokes.
Having batted with great restraint Stokes tried to uppercut another bouncer from the impudent Wagner. The mis-hit ballooned over the gully region where Tim Southee, running back, grabbed the catch. New Zealand’s greatest obstacle had been removed. Now just three wickets were needed in the final session. Within an hour Todd Astle defeated Craig Overton with a googly and another perfectly directed bouncer saw Chris Woakes, who had battled to his fourth Test half century, fending the ball to short-leg. Jimmy Anderson lamely drove to mid-off against the leg-spinner and the celebrations could begin.
Stokes and Woakes were the only two batsmen to give Kane Williamson the odd headache. Despite suffering from back pain later in his innings Stokes displayed much resolve and technical skill. He glided his first ball from Boult to the fine leg boundary but thereafter his innings was a model of self-denial for the best part of two sessions. He was easily the most secure of the remaining English batsmen, firm and confident in defence.
Until his demise he felt no urgency to keep his score ticking over; at one point he faced 31 balls without scoring (a record for him in Test cricket according to the BBC scorer Andrew Samson, of course) and he was not bothered.
The rest were less convincing. In these situations there is always the need to be positive in defence with decisive movement of the feet. Dawid Malan could not deliver that. For the second time in the match he was stuck on the crease, prodding tentatively and edging, this time against Southee.
Malan was excellent in Australia but there is the suspicion that his technique is more suited to the hard unyielding pitches there, which offer minimal sideways movement. On such surfaces a significant stride towards the ball may not be so essential.
Jonny Bairstow, one of the five batsmen on a pair, took 15 balls to avoid that indignity and was dropped before he scored. He flicked at a leg-side delivery from Southee and edged behind; BJ Watling dived to his left and the ball clipped his gloves but proceeded down to the fine-leg boundary. It was a tough chance but one that international keepers might expect to take more often than not.
Bairstow’s next alarm came when the leg-spinner Astle was finally introduced. He spied an ugly long-hop, which was surely destined for the leg side boundary. However Bairstow, on 21, mis-hit the ball horribly straight to a startled Boult at mid-on, who dropped a straightforward catch. This seemed a significant miss but Bairstow could not capitalise. In Astle’s next over there was another long-hop, which spun towards the off-side. This time the batsman made better contact and the ball sped towards Williamson at mid-wicket, who snatched an excellent catch.
Currently the advent of Moeen Ali is not a source of great assurance. But he settled in without too many alarms. Wagner bounced him (of course) and there were one or two wafts but also some crisp pull shots. Soon he had overtaken Stokes but the combination of the new ball, Boult and a shrewd review brought about his wicket.
It was clear that the ball had found the edge of his bat, which dampened the enthusiasm for a review. But those fielders square of the wicket sensed it had touched Moeen’s right pad before touching his bat. The replays confirmed that this was the case. This constituted a minor triumph for Williamson since this was just his fourth successful review as captain in 34 attempts, the worst record of all the Test captains (Samson), not a statistic that disturbed New Zealand’s captain greatly after a famous victory.
