There are worse places to be watching cricket in the spring than Worcester where every four years, as a traditional prelude to another Ashes summer, the cathedral stood sombre sentinel as Don flowed as serenely as does the Severn. The Australians do not come to New Road this time but the Black Caps are here, cock-a-hoop from the World Cup.
Gradually the advance guard is being joined by the IPL absentees. Matt Henry and Corey Anderson have both arrived, and may yet participate in a match that, out of the Duncan Fletcher manual, appears to be 15 of Worcestershire against 13 of New Zealand. It sounds like a union v league charity match.
It was tricky going for the visitors too. The first of the scheduled days had been confined to a watery grave, so the pitch had been hiding beneath covers, a boon to pace bowlers who found enough movement, and good carry, to trouble all the batsmen before lunch, and into the afternoon when the sun came out. Until a lively ninth-wicket stand of 70 inflated the New Zealand score to 261 before a declaration only Hamish Rutherford had offered resistance for any length of time, and he battled his way through to the interval and beyond, making 75 diligent runs before a rush of blood saw the end of him.
Until they arrive New Zealand are missing their two best batsmen in Kane Williamson, delayed longer in India because of Kevin Pietersen’s injury, and Brendon McCullum (as well as their Test match opening attack of Trent Boult and Tim Southee, who would surely have had a fine time had they enjoyed a bowl first thing) but the manner in which the moving ball caused problems was instructive.
England have cause to remember Rutherford, the left-hander who in his Test match debut innings made 171 against them in Dunedin, and has made but a single half century in 28 further innings since. Along with Tom Latham, who was caught behind early on, and the mighty hitter Martin Guptill, who hit a couple of sweet sixes in his 35 before succumbing to Jack Shantry’s slower ball, he is fighting for a place in the XI for Thursday’s first Test.
Rutherford was well past his half-century – 83 balls with three fours, two of them taking him to fifty – and the queue for the tea and cake in the Ladies’ pavilion already stretching down the steps, when there was a round of applause from an excellent crowd and Moeen Ali trotted on to the field.
As one of the participants in the recent Test series in the Caribbean, Moeen had been listed as one who should miss cricket before the Test. There has been a regime change, though, and Moeen, recognising that he needed to spend time in the middle with the bat, and put in some overs with the ball to reclaim the consistency of last summer, asked Paul Farbrace if he could play after all, a request England’s interim head coach was more than happy to sanction.
Moeen struggled with his off spin in the Caribbean, with a single game of red-ball cricket behind him since being sidelined with injury after England’s ignominiously early exit from the World Cup. He does spin the ball more than most fingerspinners, not in the same division as Graeme Swann but enough, at his best, to get good drift away from the right-hander and turn and bounce in. But, particularly in Barbados, there were too many loose deliveries, dragged down or full tosses – a result perhaps of trying to spin the ball too hard when on a helpful surface. Where the ball will turn with fewer revolutions, it is control that becomes pre-eminent.
This was a chance to begin to find the rhythm that all bowlers, fast or slow, need. From the New Road end he certainly turned the ball sharply at times, managed to take the wickets of Rutherford – who, out of character with the tone of this particular innings, charged, missed and was stumped – and Mark Craig, who will be his Kiwi spinning counterpart at Lord’s and drove to short extra cover where Ross Whitely took a sharp catch well. Two for 35 from 10 overs was his stint for the day. At stumps Worcestershire had reached 65 for one in reply.
