It’s Test cricket, but
England look dead and buried, then dynamic duo rewrite rulebook
Well, they said they want to be entertainers. And, in firstly seeing their first six wickets crash in a quite bonkers hour and then through a spectacular counter-attack led by the imperious Jonny Bairstow, england royally entertained the Headingley crowd.
It was, as Mike Atherton said on Sky, Test cricket but not as we know it. Clearly, we are going to get to know it because this wild, remarkable and truly special day at this famous old ground is absolutely what england are determined to carry on producing.
It was ‘Baz ball’ with all its glorious imperfections, New Zealand playing a full part in a second day of this final lV= Insurance Test chock- a- block with action, incident and high-quality cricket. It was Test meets Twenty20 but far from in a bad way.
It was a day that ended with england, astonishingly, just 65 behind New Zealand after Bairstow joined forces in a near run a ball unbroken stand of 209 with debutant Jamie Overton to transform a final Test that looked firmly in New Zealand’s grasp.
Not now it isn’t. Not after Bairstow hit his second successive century and his fourth in his last seven Tests, showing real emotion as he received the acclaim of his joyous home crowd, with Overton alongside him just 11 short of a hundred of his own on debut.
Far from trying to rebuild, with england in desperate trouble in reply to New Zealand’s 329, the pair had a totally positive, totally ambitious attitude. They were full of self-belief. It was almost as if they were attempting to claim a first innings lead by the close of the day!
Just look at where england were after Daryl Mitchell had made his third hundred in consecutive Tests and Jack leach had taken his first five-wicket haul in a home Test.
england lost their first four wickets for 21 and their first six for 55 in fewer than 12 overs. It was carnage. They were in disarray. They were, to all conventional thinking, dead and buried. But what did they do? Only y smash their way to within reach of New w Zealand without further r loss at more than five e an over. That is truly y rewriting the Test t rulebook.
This was dizzying Test cricket played at such a pace, with wickets tumbling m before runs came in torrents, that it was not at times to more conservative, traditional tastes.
But it was totally in keeping with a philosophy that england are insistent will become the norm even if there will be implosions along the way like the one that let New Zealand initially grab control of this final Test with a brilliant display of swing bowling.
That was led by Trent Boult demolishing the stumps of the top three, bowling Alex lees with a near unplayable delivery and following it up with top- quality balls that proved far too good for the slightly suspect techniques of Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley.
even Joe Root succumbed early, undone by Tim Southee, but the collapse could hardly be blamed on england’s new ultra-positive style under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum. It was world-class bowling and england were in big trouble.
Only then did we see an overt display of aggression that could be said to have crossed the fine line between what england are trying to achieve and irresponsibility.
And it came from Stokes, the man determined to set the tone.
The captain came down the pitch to his first ball from Southee. Then he smashed him straight for six, his 100th maximum in Tests. Thirty-four runs flowed in the 19 balls after Root’s dismissal but they came with a sense of recklessness and it was to lead to Stokes’s downfall when he advanced wildly at Neil Wagner’s first two balls and hit the second to mid-off.
‘That’s shocking, rubbish,’ spluttered Michael Vaughan, who was not exactly an england captain lacking in enterprise, on Test Match Special. ‘You can’t play like that in Test cricket.’
But Stokes is insistent he can and he is doing it to imbue his players with a sense of confidence
in what they are trying to achieve. Even after he had gone and Ben Foakes had fallen for a duck, England kept coming.
It was the captain who backed Bairstow publicly after he failed twice in the first Test at Lord’s seemingly playing IPL cricket. And how his faith has been rewarded, the Yorkshireman taking his game to new heights in winning the Trent Bridge Test and now in an unbeaten 130 off 126 balls.
He reached three figures, passing 5,000 Test runs in the process, with a lovely straight drive off Boult for four and ran in celebration towards his family in the Kirkstall Lane Stand with his arms aloft, relishing the moment.
Equally impressive was Overton, who failed yesterday to produce the consistent pace he’d displayed on day one but showed why he is regarded as a genuine all-rounder in county cricket.
The younger Overton twin would have been out on five had Wagner reviewed Richard Kettleborough’s not-out lbw decision but how he made New Zealand pay, hitting the part-time spin of Michael Bracewell for six and following it by smashing Wagner for 14 in three consecutive balls.
It was Bairstow who had pulled off a spectacular catch in front of the Western Terrace to end the innings and complete a five-wicket haul for Leach. And it is Bairstow who could take England to an improbable first-innings lead.
Who knows what will come next? It is going to be fun finding out.