It was a pretty magnificent counterattack by Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton. From 91 per six, with England almost dead and buried, they brought the game to New Zealand in an exciting way and with 264 per six they have brought their team back to that test.
He was a great example of the kind of things Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes want from this testing team. It’s not just about stepping away when the odds are against you. It’s about training when it’s the right time to attack.
Bairstow and Overton, who showed a real soul in their debut in the tests, timed it to perfection.
From 91-6, Jonny Bairstow and Jamie Overton brought the game to New Zealand with an exciting style
And it can be the kind of performance from which you can learn the first order, because you have to get that right balance. Too reckless and runs the risk of collapsing into a pile. Too shy, and bowling players are everywhere. You have to find a way to put them under pressure. Bairstow and Overton did very well.
Of course, the first-order collapse came against Trent Boult’s excellent swing bowling. From the first ball, his pace was excellent, his longs good and his pace high enough.
Crucially, he unmarked England’s top three with a late swing: not a hand swing that allows batters the opportunity to line up the ball, but a swing about three-quarters of the way down, just when you decide which shot play.
I don’t think Alex Lees could have done much with the ball that got him. You always talk about hitting the top of the stump – that was the original delivery of the top.
If anything, Lees might have to look at the ball that almost cost him his port before: a flash that was shot down by Daryl Mitchell on the first slip.
The excellent partnership of 209 executions of the pair has brought England back to the third test with 264-6
Alex Lees was eliminated for four with a perfect ball that hit the top of the stump in the first over
Lees deserves credit for the way he opened his game at Trent Bridge. But if the ball is swinging, a shot like this, neither cut nor kicked back, puts the cord in play.
Ollie Pope and Zak Crawley suffered similar layoffs. If the big impulses against Boult’s inswing seem like high-risk shots, it’s because they are. Geoffrey Boycott, a legend of these parts, always said that if the ball swings, try to see it early and play it late.
Of course, Boult also has this delivery going right, so both batters would have been wary of that and crossed the stumps to cover it. But you can have problems when the ball comes back in.
In Crawley’s case, he lands with his heel when driving, which means he can’t bend his front leg in the shot. But when you run out of heads, you start throwing your hands at the ball. Again, the right balance is being made. At one end of the spectrum, you have Dom Sibley, Rory Burns, and Haseeb Hameed simply looking to survive. On the other hand, you’re just playing.
Pope seems to have trouble losing balance in the fold. He seems to be moving at the point of contact, with his head falling into the fold. He goes to the ball, instead of letting it reach him.
From the first ball, Trent Boult’s bowling pace was excellent and his pace was high enough.
Joe Root was the victim of a top-notch bowling piece by Tim Southee, who approached the stumps for a couple of deliveries, and then jumped out of the fold, as he does from time to time. This changed the angle and persuaded Root to play with it. When the ball bounced away late, Root was committed to the shot.
Which brings us to Ben Stokes. This shimmy on the field of play has become one of his shots, as he demonstrated when he hit Southee by six. But maybe he could have taken a look at Neil Wagner before deciding to accuse him.
Earlier, he had played a beautiful shot against Southee, which went a little wider after Stokes reloaded it. But Stokes retained a fraction and nailed it through the decks for four: his shot from the posts.
Against Wagner, however, he did not have that throw, and the ball was not there to hit. There was no plan B.
It was a rare occasion when Ben Stokes struggled to get his pace right in test cricket
Stokes is one of the two best hitters in England, with Root, and there aren’t many times he hasn’t hit his tempo in test cricket. But I just hope you don’t try to exaggerate in this new era, because it’s too good for that.
What the game of the second day confirmed to me is that there is no single way to baptize test cricket, which is what differentiates the format from the white ball versions of the game. When Bairstow went crazy on Trent Bridge, he had been given a platform before tea. You adapt to what you have in front of you.
We will have to accept that England is a little wrong as it adapts. But one thing’s for sure, as Rob Key said, it’s going to be a lot of fun, and that’s definitely what it’s all about.