Innings of Jonny’s life as England romp home
Kiwis destroyed by one of the most dazzling Test centuries of all time
It does not get any better than this. A sensational england victory in front of a packed trent Bridge crowd who were watching their heroes for free.
What a treat those supporters had. What a performance they saw from Jonny Bairstow with one of the quickest and most dazzling test hundreds of all time.
the miracle of Headingley? this was even more incredible in so many ways because it came, along with last week’s victory at Lord’s, so rapidly after a run of one win in 17 tests that had brought england to their knees.
At the centre of it, just as in Leeds against Australia in 2019, was Ben stokes. the new captain has joined Brendon McCullum in transforming england, in just two games, from a side devoid of all belief and languishing at the bottom of the World test Championship.
there were buckets of self-belief and confidence here, particularly when england lost their fourth wicket for 93 chasing 299 in 72 overs for victory and the odds switched to a series-levelling New Zealand win or at best a draw.
Not a bit of it. stokes joined Bairstow, under pressure for his place yet again from the coming man in Harry Brook, simply stormed england to victory with dizzying shenanigans that can rarely if ever have been seen in any test match.
this second LV= Insurance test was very much in the balance ahead of the final session of a glorious and scintillating five days, with england needing 160 off 38 overs for a second victory in successive games and their first series winn in 18 months.
It looked a trickycky task at best butut whatever was saidd or eaten at teaa clearly galvanised Bairstow as he produced the innings of his life and came within a whisker of breaking a record that hass lasted 120 years.
Bairstow destroyedyed what remaineded a formidable New Zealand attack despite the loss of Kyle Jamieson to injury, 102 runs coming from the first nine overs after tea and the Yorkshireman smashing 93 from 44 post-tea deliveries as sixes flew left, right and centre into the trent Bridge stands.
It looked certain that Bairstow would reach his ninth test century
quicker than Gilbert Jessop’s england record of 76 balls, made in 1902 without a single six, but he defended two balls before guiding tim southee for three through the covers off his 77th delivery.
Bairstow raced towards the england dressing room, leaping
and punching the air as he went, before looking to the heavens as he always does to remember his late father david. ‘He enjoyed that one Jonny,’ said Mark Butcher on sky with a perfect piece of commentary. ‘We all did.’ then came a reminder from his captain that the job was not yet done, but it soon was even though Bairstow fell, for 136 off 92 balls, with 27 still needed and New Zealand almalmost through to england’s england vulnerable tail. Ben Foakes joined stokes stok as victory came cam with fully 22 overs ov to spare even though t there were the t minor scares of stokes almost being run out with 21 needed and then Foakes being missed by Michael Bracewell, the th 12th drop of the test, with 14 required. requ It was so comfortable, comfor so astonishing, ishing, that tha england could conceivably have chased 400. Fittingly it was stokes, seemingly hampered by a long-standing left knee issue that was never going to stop him, who hit the winning runs, crashing trent Boult to the cover boundary and raising his arms aloft after finishing unbeaten on 75 off just 70 balls. the skipper had reached his halfcentury with one of his four sixes and had maintained the perfect attacking tempo and composure throughout his time at the crease, but this final day belonged to Bairstow. When he made two low scores at Lord’s playing shots as if he were still in the IPL rather than a test there were plenty of people questioning his place in the side even though he made two centuries during england’s latest winter of discontent.
stokes was not among them, making a point of praising Bairstow both after the win at Lord’s and ahead of this game. How Bairstow repaid him, still playing those white-ball shots but executing them brilliantly and thrillingly. New Zealand did not know what hit them. they had made england’s task look all the harder when daryl Mitchell and Boult added 35 for the last wicket off just 32 balls, Boult making 17 of them and causing stokes to rue delaying taking the second new ball.
When it was finally in the hands of Jimmy Anderson and Boult holed out to stokes, england needed one short of 300 and had to make the highest winning score in trent Bridge test history.
But they said they would chase anything and, far from daunted, Alex Lees set off as his hero Matthew Hayden would have done. Zak Crawley again fell to the excellent Boult and when the firstinnings century-makers ollie Pope and Joe Root went within five balls of each other silence descended on trent Bridge. Lees followed them six short of his half-century and the old england would surely have buckled.
Not this one. this england are a completely different, dynamic outfit already promoting and coming to the rescue of test cricket, as McCullum promised they would.
What a start the management team of stokes and McCullum and the man who appointed them in Rob Key have made. What a test this was, england conceding 553 after putting New Zealand into bat yet still romping home in a match that saw the most boundaries, 226 fours and 24 sixes, in any test.
We have all buckled in, as Key advised us to, and we are enjoying it just as much as the england players clearly are. Baz- ball promises to provide quite a ride.