Lord’s result haunts Black Caps
Highest first-innings score from which a test has been lost at the famous venue underlines lost opportunity
They are one of the best cricket teams this country has sent to England, they are unbeaten in their last six test series, they took 20 wickets at Lord’s, they scored 743 runs, they were in a position of 403 for three on the third morning, they had a lead of 134 runs on the first innings.
Yet a win or a draw was beyond New Zealand’s grasp.
Let’s not quibble about the spectacle. With two evenly matched sides, a record 1610 runs at the venue and periods of exquisite seam and swing bowling, the test was a neutral’s dream. It ebbed and flowed spell by spell and session by session with England taking the honours on days one, four and five and New Zealand getting the best of days two and three.
The key to the match was Alastair Cook anchoring England’s second innings with 162. Without his heroics across three days, New Zealand would have been poised to push for victory. Instead they were set 345 to win, a target beyond any team’s capability in 130 tests at the ground.
New Zealand’s 523 is the highest first-innings score from which a test has been lost at the venue. Ironically if their bowlers hadn’t dismissed England twice, it’s unlikely Cook would have declared. The match might have meandered to a draw rather than resulting in the visitors’ top order paralysis.
However, that is hypothesising. The reality is 403 for three in the first innings melted to 12 for three in the second and New Zealand lost with 9.3 overs to spare. That was an inconceivable position midway through the match. Brendon McCullum admitted: “It hurts, I won’t lie,” in the aftermath but the 124-run loss must haunt.
This was a prime opportunity to add to New Zealand’s solitary Lord’s victory in 1999 and a repeat failure after the 2013 demise against a side whose administration has been in well-documented turmoil. As Cook understated it, “It’s been a rocky road for us the last two weeks”. Yet now England have the series momentum.
McCullum is adamant the Black Caps are applying the method which best suits them, despite the result.
“There’s an element of pride that we continue to play a style that gives us our greatest chance [of winning]. There will be times teams can stand up to you and withstand the pressure. You have to doff the cap, say ‘well played’ and make sure next time you go hard again and ask the same question.
“Emotionally our guys are steady and that’s allowed us to play some good cricket so ‘no knee-jerk reaction’ will be the message to a performance like this because we were pretty good for most of it.”
That is no reason not to raise questions looking ahead to the second test, starting on Friday night.
How does a top order which completed four half-centuries in the first innings for the second time in NZ test history, collapse in the second? Surely, it’s a mental issue more than a technical one, so how is it resolved?
How does Tim Southee, as a pace spearhead, respond after being punished with test figures of 58-5-266-3?
In contrast to that scarring, how does he repeat moments of brilliance like the deliveries that removed Adam Lyth, Gary Ballance and Ian Bell?
How does Mark Craig tie down an end after struggling to match figures of 46-5-173-2?
Is BJ Watling fit to keep? In the second test he would be prevented from taking breaks in the field with his inflamed knee because it is deemed an “existing injury”. New Zealand’s response Headingley intrigues.
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