RESCUE ACT AS BAIR GRILLS KIWIS
PAGES OF STARTS Wood weighs in too with first Test 50
JONNY BAIRSTOW and the unlikely figure of Mark Wood spared England’s blushes against New Zealand.
Although it wasn’t quite as bad as the first day of the first Test, when they were bowled out for 58, Joe Root’s team flirted with disaster.
On the first day of the second Test they were reduced to 94-5 and then 164-7 at Hagley Oval.
Finally Bairstow and Wood, playing his first Test since July, showed up the struggling top order with a 95-run eighth-wicket stand that helped revive England’s hopes of ending their dismal 12-match winless streak abroad.
Bairstow was unbeaten on 97 at stumps, three short of his fifth Test hundred. Wood, back after missing the Ashes with the ankle problems that have blighted his career, posted his maiden Test half-century.
He said: “The worrying thing is I’ve got a (Test) 50 before a five-for – so I’ve done that the wrong way round, haven’t I?
“But I loved batting out there with Jonny. I had loads of fun.
“When I went out, obviously we were in a bit of trouble and Jonny knows that I like to have fun and a bit of a crack out there. So it made it lot easier. We were just having a from RODNEY WHITE in Christchurch laugh which put my mind at ease really. You just forget the situation you’re in.
“I get to 20 and think I’m like (Don) Bradman – and try too many shots. But I had a great time while I was out there.”
The pair’s heroics cannot disguise yet another top order collapse.
England have already shown they are not afraid to be ruthless, with Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes dropped for this match after they followed up miserable Ashes tours with poor performances in the first Test of this series in Auckland.
That saw recalls for James Vince and Durham fast bowler Wood, as well as a debut for Somerset spinner Jack Leach. Wood was picked because his extra pace offers something different to what has largely been a one-dimensional bowling attack this winter.
But Vince failed yet again as he was trapped lbw for 18 by Tim Southee.
The fact Wood’s entertaining 52 from 62 balls totally upstaged the Hampshire batsman said it all.
Surely only a match-defining second innings century can save Vince from permanent exile given he has yet to score a century in 13 Tests and averages 22.47.
Skipper Joe Root was bowled for 33 by Southee after being moved to his preferred position of No.4.
Dawid Malan was then pinned lbw for a duck by Trent Boult, while Mark Stoneman edged Southee behind after a dour 35 from 111 balls, as England lost 3-1 in nine balls.
Ben Stokes put on 57 with Bairstow to steady things either side of tea.