Root finally stamps his mark as attack follow orders
Broad and Anderson profit from bowling fuller length Spinner Leach hits debut rhythm to contain Kiwis
It has been a worthwhile Test winter in the end. Whether or not England set a record here for their longest sequence of Tests abroad without a victory, they will return home with a distinct identity – as Joe Root’s team.
In their six previous Tests on this tour, in the Ashes and Auckland, Root’s England team were barely distinguishable from Alastair Cook’s, if at all. On the second morning of the second Test, both by accident and design, Root stamped his mark and opened a new era, his own era.
Nothing hitherto had stopped James Anderson and Stuart Broad bowling as they saw fit, which was understandable given they have the best part of a thousand Test wickets, but not invariably in the best interests of their team. Thus in the second Ashes Test at Adelaide, after Root had decided to send Australia in, nothing could persuade the opening pair to pitch the ball up and given it a chance to swing – not Root as he stood helplessly at second slip, not England supporters in the crowd shouting to Anderson and Broad to do so.
On the second morning at Hagley Oval, the guard was changed. The accident was the one that Root had suffered while batting in the first Test, when Trent Boult hit his right index finger with a fiery bouncer. Now Root seized the opportunity to make over the position of second slip to Dawid Malan, thus avoiding an aggravation of his injury, while the move allowed Root to perch himself on the shoulder of his new-ball bowlers at mid-off and implement his strategy of bowling a fuller length.
In no time New Zealand had lost four wickets for 17 runs. Broad, in particular, was transformed. Pitching the new ball up was like a facelift: it took years off him. He took a wicket in his first over, which inspired him to push his pace up to 142kph, and although it did not quite lead to one of his hot streaks that used to turn a game on its head, three wickets for 18 made for some opening spell. The rhythm and bounce were back.
Broad drew two batsmen into throwing their bats at drives simply by bowling a length that CricViz measured as 30cm fuller than normal. These were the prime wickets of Tom Latham and Ross Taylor. Broad’s lbw appeal against Henry Nicholls would have been rejected for the ball going over the top if it had been his normal length, but the ball being a foot or so fuller made all the difference.
High risk, and high reward: Anderson, too, has been reluctant since his early years to gamble.
But he, too, managed to bowl a touch fuller to have Jeet Raval caught behind off an inadequate prod. England, having risen from 94 for five to 307 thanks to Jonny Bairstow’s fifth Test century, were thus all over New Zealand – and even more so when Anderson “strangled” Kane Williamson by having him caught off a wayward delivery going down the leg side, a fashionable mode of dismissal in this series.
For the first time in a Test abroad, when New Zealand were 36 for five, Root was on top. Bradley-Jon Watling and Colin de Grandhomme – both born in southern Africa but primarily raised in New Zealand – proceeded to add 142, the highest for New Zealand’s sixth wicket against England, as the ball aged.
The basic principle, however, had been established: England’s new-ball bowlers would bowl the way the captain wanted. A small difference in length but a huge change in strategy, and one that Cook was unable to effect.
During the sixth-wicket partnership Root was a little impatient in his captaincy, as he has been in his batting as leader, perhaps for no reason other than that he is a child of this T20 age.
Coming on when England were on top, Jack Leach, Somerset’s debutant left-arm spinner, settled in to do a good holding job – which he had to do so that the three seamers could rest and rotate – and his first 10 overs from round the wicket cost only 21 runs. Then Root either allowed or persuaded Leach to bowl over the wicket, and Watling enjoyed free hits to leg.
It was notable that when Leach was bowling over the wicket, he aimed to have the batsman driving towards his two fielders at short extra-cover some eight yards apart. This was exactly the same tactic of Wilfred Rhodes in his last Test at the Oval in 1926, and he had been bowling left-arm spin since the dawn of time, or at least the 19th century. This style of bowling must have changed less than any other aspect of the sport.
Root also encouraged Mark Wood to overdo the bouncers, just as Neil Wagner had done, to the point where they became predictable. The captain sometimes posted four men on the legside boundary for Wood bowling round the wicket, which reduced the element of surprise to nil. The pitch was true and easy-paced but grassy enough for the odd ball to seam, and that should have been Plan A with the old ball, as Broad proved when he drew De Grandhomme forward into a drive and had him caught behind.
That made Broad’s 406th Test wicket, taking him ahead of Curtly Ambrose – “one of my inspirations and heroes” Broad said – at least numerically in the all-time list of Test wicket-takers. It made due recognition for what could be Broad’s new lease of life.
Ben Stokes tried a spell – his first in Test cricket since September – that was impressive in pace, late 130s kph, if necessarily limited in duration by his back trouble. Watling saw New Zealand through to the close, but with the second new ball to come England were on course to level the series at 1-1.