Boult stars in brilliant day for NZ
NEW Zealand enjoyed arguably its finest single day of test cricket at Eden Park yesterday.
Whether it was to mark the 50th test at the ground, or the arrival of pinkball cricket, it could hardly have been a job done any better by the home side.
And if you want to demur over the day’s place in New Zealand history, you certainly cannot argue that it was the country’s best first session of a test.
England, sent in, was dismissed for 58 in 20.4 overs — or 124 balls if you prefer — 26 minutes before the first scheduled break. It was its sixthlowest total against allcomers.
New Zealand was 30 ahead by the dinner break and by stumps, captain Kane Williamson was on 91 and New Zealand was 117 runs ahead.
At this point, to anyone with a day five ticket for this test the news is all bad. Then again, so it the weather prognosis.
It was a first session to disbelievingly rub the eyes as England’s batsmen retraced their steps to the pavilion with alarming rapidity.
It was also a day to savour the skills of Trent Boult, who, with Tim Southee an admirable foil, bowled unchanged through the innings to take his best test figures, six for 32.
Boult took his first five wickets at a cost of just nine runs in 42 deliveries.
He had the ball on a string, delivering a master class in swing bowling.
Boult relishes test cricket above the other forms. He was well up for a big day out and England had no answer.
Boult and Southee bowled
unchanged, the first pair to do so for New Zealand in a test, and even gave New Zealand a sniff of dismissing England for fewer than 26, the 63yearold record set by New Zealand against the English on the same ground.
The eighth wicket fell at 23 but when Craig Overton, England’s top scorer, steered a ball to the point fence that ignominy had been seen off. Overton clumped late runs but there were five ducks in the innings, equalling the England record.
As the wickets fell, you kept expecting someone to bring it to a halt, but noone did.
Seven fell for 11 in 7.4 overs and noone had the will, or skill, to halt the freefall.
For three New Zealand
players, Williamson, Boult and wicketkeeper BJ Watling, there might have been a brief thought back to Cape Town on January 2, 2013, when New Zealand was skittled for 45 on Brendon McCullum’s first day in charge.
That innings lasted 116 balls and was every bit as ghastly as England’s capitulation yesterday.
Boult has now taken 65 wickets in all internationals this season, starting at Mumbai in early October, in 29 and ahalf matches at an average of just 21.01.
No need to read the fine print on that, given the differing forms and approaches towards those games. But it is a reasonable guide to Boult’s summer. He has been uniformly impressive; occasionally magnificent. Yesterday topped the lot.
He is not one given to great histrionics, but his exultant fist pumping thin air when he bow led England’s captain Joe Root for a duck showed his feelings at that pivotal dismissal. Everything flowed downhill for England from there.
Williamson’s staggering leap and onehanded clasp at gully to dismiss Stuart Broad capped the innings perfectly.
A crowd of 10,540 watched the historic day. Plenty more will wish they had made the effort. These days do not roll round often. — NZME