This time the bowlers are having a ball

That was one of the best performances with the ball I’ve seen from this England side. all the talk over the past year or two has been about their exciting batting, but the way their attack overcame extremely testing conditions in Cardiff was a real credit to them.

It was blowing an absolute gale, which meant it was especially hard for the seamers running into the wind from the River taff End. they were getting blown around like rag dolls, so to maintain their discipline, banging out the length they wanted, was a remarkable effort.

It’s why they picked Jake Ball, who bowls that heavy delivery just back of a length — perfect for a surface with a bit of uneven bounce. and the ball which dismissed Luke Ronchi in the first over of New Zealand’s chase showed they had learned from australia’s mistake last Friday of pitching the ball up and allowing Ronchi and Martin Guptill to get the Kiwis off to a flyer.

there were very few drive balls. that’s normally the plan here at Cardiff because of the long square boundaries, but they executed it to perfection, especially in the first 20 overs.

In the old days, England’s bowlers in the middle overs might have been guys who tried to hurry through a few without being hit for too many runs. But someone like Liam Plunkett has changed that altogether. the way he made use of cross- seam deliveries to extract uneven bounce was exceptional, and he ruffled New Zealand’s feathers by clonking Kane Williamson and Ross taylor on the helmet in the same over.

the cross-seam tactic reminded me a bit of the World twenty20, when England’s slower-ball bouncers meant they were slightly ahead of the curve. During the recent series with South africa, we saw how dangerous cross-seam can be, with the ball skidding through off the shiny side, and bouncing up if it hits the seam. Williamson didn’t seem too happy that the ball he edged to Jos Buttler leapt at him, but Mark Wood had learned from pitching one up a couple of overs earlier and getting smashed back over his head. he immediately dragged his length back, which is one of the things I like about this England team. they don’t take long to adjust. If they make an error in length, they rectify it. the same can be said of the decision to recall adil Rashid. I was surprised England dropped him at the Oval, and perhaps his recall was a reaction to what happened against Bangladesh, when the bowling looked a bit impotent against tamim Iqbal. But all the talk of the short straight boundaries didn’t really come into play, and Rashid repaid Eoin Morgan’s faith with a tidy spell. It’s too early to say how much England will miss Chris Woakes, because they weren’t under much pressure during the death overs in this game. But on this evidence, they have the nous and the skill to compensate with the new ball and in the middle. It was mightily impressive.