England lambasted
The down-in-the-dumps England cricketers have been accused of batting "with flabbergasting feebleness and the naivety of schoolboys without a coach" after their "pitiful total of 58" against the Black Caps.
Seasoned cricket correspondent Scyld Berry made the claim in the Daily Telegraph and wrote that it was all the more staggering that England’s capitulation at Eden Park on Thursday occurred "in broad daylight ... , not at the bewitching hour of twilight when pink balls are believed to assume a life of their own".
"The pink ball swung all right in the first day/night test in New Zealand, but it was nothing exceptional by the standards of swing bowling through the ages. What was wrong was England’s response, which left their faces the same colour as the ball with which Trent Boult reduced them to 27 for nine."
Berry said England "beguiled perhaps by late-summer sunshine at Eden Park, England batted as if it was another limited-overs game against a white ball which could not move sideways".
"In sum they did not play the conditions, as Kane Williamson was to do so studiously and patiently."
Meanwhile a former inter- national who knows what it’s like to be on the wrong end of a spectacular batting collapse said England couldn’t hide behind any "BS".
"It’s just total panic when you collapse like that," Matt Prior - part of the 2009 England team bowled out for 51 by the West Indies in 2009 -told The Guardian.
"There is a difference between a cluster of wickets – two or three – and looking up at a score of 27 for nine, as it was at one stage this morning.
"The dressing room is just people rushing for pads and there is no clear thinking. That just goes out the window.
‘‘Logic makes way for emotion and silly shots creep in down the order. It is an appalling thing to go through but for us, it started one of the most successful periods in English cricket."
Prior said: "The thing with a day like this one at Eden Park, you cannot paper over any cracks – the talk is as honest as you’ll get. There is no scope for BS.
"The England cricket Twitter feed said ’we’ve had a shocker’ and and that was spot on. The players will know that, believe me. And the honest talk will be led by the skipper."
"A collapse of 58 all out should not fall on the coaches.’’