Harry Brook accepts the trophy, a big old handful of silver. He smiles the smile of a ten-year-old in the family photo at Christmas, and that is that. Thanks for your company and correspondence about everything from the weather to the Tims.
Do join us for the ODI series between the same teams, which starts on Sunday at 1am in the UK, an hour before the clocks go back. Let’s hope it’s better than this. Things can only get drier.
Rain is now billowing across the ground. So the umpires, who didn’t exactly seem desperate to give the crowd some entertainment, are off the hook. It would have been a washout even if they’d been a bit bolder.
Mitchell Santner too is accentuating the positive. “A lot of good things came out of the series,” he says. “It’s always good to play England, no matter what time of year.” So what were those good things? “The way we bowled in that first game, especially at Hagley Oval… And then again tonight, we started well.”
“Very frustrating, obviously,” says Harry Brook. “It’s a great place to tour, we’ve loved every minute and we’re looking forward to the ODI series… We’ve had an amazing time.” Now that’s what you call a positive spin.
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So in Christchurch we got half a game, followed by a full game. In Auckland we got only 22 balls. The player of the non-match was probably Tim Seifert, with a spirited 23 off 11, though Luke Wood was impressive too, conceding only 13 off his two overs.
England win the series
So the series ends up as a pair of washouts bookending an England victory. Their buccaneering batting in the second game turns out to have been enough to win the series. And that was a phenomenal display, but they were lucky that the rain rescued them after their far more halting performance in the first game.
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Match abandoned!
The umpires have given up the ghost.
Some thoughts about the weather from Mark Gretton. “Hello Tim, thank you for your efforts today!” My pleasure. “As we see international cricket’s latest attempt to stage the summer game at a time of year that – for excellent reasons – no-one has previously thought it was designed for (see Women’s World Cup games being played in Colombo’s monsoon season), you do wonder if we’re missing a trick in Blighty.
“Bonfire Night T20 international game in Buxton? Test match beginning New Year’s Day at Old Trafford? Plenty of opportunity for commentators to laud the stoicism of spectators sodden and shapeless under seven layers and to thank the ground staff for standing in a downpour in thermal shorts whilst wielding desultory rakes.
”The game of cricket isn’t played in the rain. This is not news. The authorities may have many good reasons for trying to forget that, but it remains the case.
And he signs off: “Mark, in Hull, watching the rain run down the windows as it does in autumn.”
It’s now a race against time. “They need to be out at 10.22pm latest,” Simon Burnton reports, “to have a five-over game. Looks pretty unlikely currently.”
Rain stops resumption!
Just as the fielders are about to trot out onto the park, the sodding rain returns. Jos Buttler and a few other England players console themselves with a game of keepy-uppy.
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Now it's eight overs a side!
Play will resume at 10pm local time, which is in three minutes. And this is now an eight-over match.
England’s powerplay will be 14 balls, and New Zealand’s is now over. They are almost halfway through their innings, with another 4.2 overs to face. Both sides still have to use five bowlers – three of them for two overs each, the other two for just the one over. It’s ridiculous, but it’s better than nothing.
“Still on Tims,” says John Starbuck. “As the bus went down the Radcliffe Road I was probably on it, having been watching the elder Tim Robinson in action at Trent Bridge. He used to be known as Old Man River because he just kept rolling along. Halcyon days.”
Personal experience, a touch of nostalgia, some wit and wistfulness – if there was an OBO Email School, this could be used as a model.
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“Tims,” says the subject line of the next email. “For one giddy moment,” Rob Knap writes, “I thought two Tims might have opened together for England: Tim Robinson and Tim Curtis. But no. Though they both played in the 1989 Ashes series I think – a lot of players had a turn that summer.” They sure did.
“I’m now lost in memories of 1980s England openers (apart from Gooch, not that exciting) when I should be working.” Ah, my Moxon and my Athey long ago. And poor old Andy Lloyd …
An immigrant writes. “As an Englishman and citizen of NZ,” says Jim Arrowsmith, “I have a bob each way in this one, though I fail Tebbit’s test by plumping for my country of choice.
“I am also torn between feeling glad I didn’t toddle down to Eden Park tonight as originally planned, and solidarity with the stalwarts there braving the wind and drizzle. What time will this end, if it does get going again? And how will they get home? Buses finish at midnight, three hours after the normal NZ bedtime!”
Buses! We need more of them in cricket coverage. They have tended to be merely decorative, as when we used to hear the fruity tones of Henry Blofeld remarking, “And a bus goes down the Radcliffe Road.” So thank you, Jim, for giving the buses more agency.
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Stat alert! In the first passage of play, which lasted only three balls, the New Zealanders hit two fours and no sixes. In the second, which lasted a full 22 balls, they hit three sixes and no fours.
Rain tailing off
There are still some umbrellas up in the crowd, but Frankie Mackay, out on the grass, says the rain has almost stopped. “Just the odd little spit coming through.”
The outfield, which looks like a snooker table to me, is quite wet according to Frankie. So our 14-over game may be about to turn into a T10.
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An email! And it’s not from Simon Burnton. “On a very windy morning in France,” says Peter Moulson, “I have tried to find a thought worth sharing. Nope, nothing there.” I know the feeling.
“But I’m sending this anyway in case you’re having a Tony Blackburn ‘is anyone out there?’ moment. I invisibly am. OBO is quite brilliant. Thank you.”
Ah thanks – not least for the single quote marks in the middle there, much appreciated.
In a shortened game, the batting side have to go along at ten an over. And NZ have done that, which may give them a slight edge at this stage. But then England have the advantage of batting second. So, honours even.
Rain stops play, again!
3.4 overs: New Zealand 38-1 (Seifert 23, Ravindra 10) Ravindra, facing Carse, plays and misses again. But then, with the powerplay slipping through his fingers, he gets out of jail with a wonderful shot – half-ramp, half-pull, all the way for six. Seifert sees that and raises him a more orthodox pull, played with very fast hands, for six more.
And then the rain returns and they’re off. These umpires don’t hang around.
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3rd over: New Zealand 25-1 (Seifert 17, Ravindra 3) Wood continues and keeps it tight, going dot, one, one, wide, then beating the left-handed Rachin Ravindra with a beauty, angled in and jagging away. Seifert decides it’s time for another ramp, and this time he connects with thin air. Do England have their noses in front?
2nd over: New Zealand 21-1 (Seifert 16, Ravindra 1) That over from Carse had a little bit of everything.
WICKET! Robinson c Bethell b Carse 2 (NZ 20-1)
Robinson goes big – and goes home! His pull shot swirls in the wind and lands in the safe hands of Jacob Bethell at deep square.
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1.4 overs: New Zealand 20-0 (Seifert 16, Robinson 2) Seifert lights up the crowd with the first improvisation of the night. As Carse bowls wide of off stump, Seifert follows the ball, falls over and plays a sweet flick over his shoulder for six. The ramp is in the house! Robinson then gets off the mark, bunting a free hit past mid-off for two.
At the other end it’s going to be Brydon Carse, with his lolloping run. He’s unlike Wood in every way – tall, right-armed, inclined to bang it in rather than pitch it up.
1st over: New Zealand 9-0 (Seifert 9, Robinson 0) Wood starts an inswinger and a dot, as Seifert clips to midwicket. Then another inswinger, nudged for a single. The last ball is the first faced by Tim Robinson. It goes straight on outside off and he gets behind it but can’t pierce the field.
That’s a good comeback from Wood. It was an over of two halves, an hour and a half apart.
The ball is back in the hands of Luke Wood, who looks as chipper as ever despite going for eight runs off three balls.
It’s not a whole different ballgame, but the powerplay will now be 25 balls. We’ve had three of them, which means the next 22 balls should be worth watching.
Match reduced to 14 overs a side
We’re going to have a 14-over match, resuming at 8.50pm local time. If I’ve got the maths right, that’s in about three minutes’ time.
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The umps are holding that promised inspection. As Neil Wagner notes, they could just look at the England players, who are doing their warm-ups on the outfield, silently proving that it’s safe to run around on.
By the way, this weather isn’t unseasonal. The cricket is.
The umpires have let it be known … that they will hold another inspection in ten minutes. Groan.
The umpires are out there, studying the outfield as the covers come off. “They’ve got their umbrellas up,” says a commentator. “No need for that, it’s not raining!”
More than a glimmer
Another update from Simon Burnton, our tireless correspondent. “It has just stopped raining!”
A glimmer of hope
“It’s actually got a bit lighter,” says Simon. “There was just a loud cheer from the crowd, who are all sheltering in the concourses, because they thought it had stopped (it hadn’t).”
That sentence has a lot to say about cricket.
Two of our threads now come together. Another email from Simon Burnton, another thought about Tims.
“Don’t forget the noted Australian confectioner Tim Tam.
“Sorry.”
No need to be sorry, Simon. Tim Tam is a legend, right up there with Tim Berners-Lee. Meanwhile, in the literary section of heaven, Martin Amis breaks off from a chat with Jane Austen to realise that he may have seriously underestimated the Tims.
A swirling curtain of drizzly muck ... and Coldplay
My plea for an email has evidently reached Simon Burnton, who sends another postcard from the ground. “It’s quite dramatic rain, this,” he says. “Not a full-on downpour, but a swirling curtain of drizzly muck. It seems particularly cruel given there was basically no rain today – a few minutes of light stuff at 10ish this morning – until 7.17pm, two minutes after this game started.” That’s cricket for you.
“I think the most striking thing about Eden Park is the amount of Coldplay memorabilia strewn about the place, after the band played three nights here last November – including their actual piano, which is loitering in reception. Do they leave a different piano at every venue they play? Is this not littering? If I leave my unwanted stuff behind I generally get told off for it.” Ha. They’ll probably be back soon to pick it up. That tour has been going on for four years and it’s not finished yet.
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In the meantime, we need to talk about Tim. Tim Seifert and Tim Robinson: are they the first pair of Tims to open the batting together in international cricket? Tim Robinson, of course, is not the first Tim Robinson to be an international opener, though he is definitely the liveliest. The Tims, they are a-changing.
When Tim Henman was at his peak, regularly losing in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, Martin Amis wrote about him in his capacity as the tennis correspondent of the New Yorker. The piece was mostly about being called Tim. Nobody called Tim, Amis declared, had ever achieved anything memorable. Amis was a fabulous journalist as well as a formidable novelist, but he missed a trick here. This was in the mid-Nineties, when, unbeknown to Amis, the most significant invention of the age had already come along: the worldwide web, pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee.
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If you’ve ever thought about sending an email to the OBO, now might be a good time. It doesn’t even have to be about the Ashes.
An email comes in from our old friend Tom van der Gucht, who is looking ahead. “I have been thinking a bit recently about the build-up to the Ashes and England’s warm up game against England A... This has the potential to be both exciting and have some thrilling sub-plots if not for the make-up of the Ashes team, but for future England squads.
“Looking back to before the 2010 T20 World Cup, England completely ripped up their plans and jettisoned Trott and Denly for Kieswetter and Lumb – the rest was history.
“if any of the Lions roar. Crawley, Pope and possibly even Bethell could see themselves being leapfrogged if they suffer a lean series. Also, it’s a chance for Flintoff to ink his name in as McCullum’s successor… Fredball!”
This may be the earliest on any Ashes tour that anyone has ever called for wholesale changes. “Send ’em home!”
Say what you like about the rain, it’s allowing viewers in the UK to have their breakfast. I’m sitting here like Paddington Bear, tucking into the marmalade. TNT Sports have switched to highlights of the last game between these two sides, which suggests that a resumption is less than imminent.
Rain stops play! NZ 8-0 off 0.3 overs
Here we go! That’s tough on the two Tims, who had made a rollicking start.
After three balls: NZ 8-0 (Seifert 8, Robinson 0) Wood’s first ball is an inswinger that swings all the way to the square-leg boundary, with an easy nudge from Tim Seifert. The second ball is a dot, and the third is another four – a full toss, thumped through the covers. But then …
The players are out there and Luke Wood has another job: to open the bowling. Can he make the new ball talk?
Simon even sends a PS. “Update: Luke Wood gave a speech to mark Salt’s 50th cap, which is what he was being congratulated for.”
Heartening to hear Simon say only “a chance of rain”. It felt like a bit more than that in his piece from yesterday …
The word from the ground
“Morning/evening/whatever from Auckland!” says Simon Burnton, our correspondent on the tour. “First, weatherwatch: yesterday it drizzled all day and while today has been dry (so far, there’s a chance of rain later), it was outrageously windy as I did the rather dreary walk here from town. England are unchanged, with Phil Salt collecting a commemorative cap in the team’s pre-match huddle on the occasion of his 50th T20 appearance (they really need to make some more effort with these special caps, because they are absolutely identical to the standard ones which makes it hard to see what the point is), and Luke Wood, who is making his 14th appearance, also getting congratulated for a reason I was unable to ascertain from a distance.”
From a distance, eh: the story of the OBO’s life.
Teams in full
New Zealand 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Tim Robinson, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Mark Chapman, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Jimmy Neesham, 8 Michell Santner (capt), 9 Zak Foulkes, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Jacob Duffy.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Jordan Cox, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.
Teams in brief
England stick with a winning team. New Zealand make one change to their bowling, replacing big Kyle Jamieson with not-quite-so-big Zak Foulkes.
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England win the toss and bowl first
When there’s rain around, you bat second. Harry Brook is often unorthodox, but not that unorthodox.
Preamble
Morning everyone, evening everyone else, and welcome to the decider in this Twenty20 series. A New Zealand win, the one realistic result we haven’t had so far, will mean the spoils are shared, which would seem fair after NZ had the better of the washout in the first game. But any other result here will hand the series to England – and that includes no result, which is rearing its soggy head again.
In Auckland tonight, as in Christchurch last Saturday, there’s a whole lot of rain forecast for the second half of the evening. Common sense might be gently suggesting that this should be a 10-over game from the start. Half the point of white-ball cricket, after all, is to have a winner before bedtime. But, as we all know, there are parts of cricket that common sense cannot reach.
For England and their novice captain Harry Brook, a win (or even a washout) would confirm the suspicion that they have remembered how to play T20. For New Zealand and the far more seasoned Mitchell Santner, it would show that they have never forgotten. If you go by results over the past year, England’s win the other night nudged them ahead of NZ. They now have 12 wins to NZ’s 11, while both have six defeats – and two washouts. Here’s hoping they don’t add to that last figure.
Play starts at 7.15am (UK time), all being well, and I’ll be back soon with news of the toss and the teams.
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