England vs New Zealand: England hopes rest on Joe Root with New Zealand five wickets from victory in Oval Test

0:01Yeah, gone! Gone! He gets his fairytale ending! An ippet way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit of First Time Winners! The most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final Test Wicket for Stuart Broad.

0:20Simon Doull:It's ended. We'll win the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope. Hello and welcome to the Sky Sports Cricket Daily Review. Day four at the Oval New Zealand have tightened their grip on this test match. I'm in the company of two bowlers who were, well, one of whom was number one in the world back in, what year was it? 2016. 2016. Dooley, I think you got to five or six in the world. That is a long time. A few haircuts ago that book back in 97, 98, I think it might have been. And Simon Dahl and Stuart Broad will run the rule over today really. It started off, let's have a look, we started off 353 for three New Zealand ahead of England.

1:04Simon Doull:So 2-5-3 for three in real good shape. Henry Nichols with a brilliant century, Darryl Mitchell. And England really only had one choice, which is come out of the blocks hard and try and knock over wickets. They're already miles behind the eight ball, but they would have been even worse had they not started off the session well. Joffre Archer. Was it, gentlemen, that he needed a little bit of bowling, say the first innings, and a little bit of the second to find the sort of rhythm that he needs after his long spell at the IPL? Maybe it was. I was really impressed with him this morning. And for all intents and purposes, he could be tired and he could be forgiven for being a bit tired, having not bowled more than four overs in a game for quite some time.

1:44But the build up, what we saw in the first innings to what we saw, I think, this morning was exceptional. He hit the ground running. He had a good warm-up. We watched the warm-ups before play. Had a good warm-up and from ball one, he was on it. And that's exactly what you want from the leader of a pretty inexperienced bowling attack. So I thought they got their plans right and I thought he started and set the tone, which is what is a bowling group. Stuart talked about it so often with his bowling group. That's what you want to do on the morning of a Test match.

2:13Simon Doull:England won't be bowling again in this Test match, but thoughts will immediately go to Trent Bridge. They've not lost the test yet, but the portents are that they probably will. Does Joffre Archer, say Stokes, Atkinson come back into the team and Robinson, does Joffre Archer stay or do they go back to the four, the quartet that was so good at Lourdes? I don't think the plan was for Joffre Archer to play this week. I think he was due to play for Sussex, build up some workload and then play at Trent Bridge with them being back-to-back. Ultimately, you win a test match at Lourdes, you have a 10-day break.

2:47none of those bowlers theoretically should need a break coming into the Oval. So the plan was for him not to play this week and then come in for the back-to-back test match at Trent Bridge. But the hands were tied slightly, weren't they? And I would imagine that Joffre will sit out at Trent Bridge with the workload he's had. Very often when you up your workload, it's not that week where the body will get a little twinge or a little hamstring. It's the following week where the body's still not quite recovered and your muscles are a bit tighter. So I would imagine they will, I mean, Atkinson will come back in and play.

3:24Robinson's knee, I'm sure, will be fine. And then you've got Stokes. So then you can balance it with the spinner again. And Bashir's got back-to-back fifers, I think, at Trent Bridge, hasn't he? So probably has pretty good memories at Trent Bridge. We could easily get into a situation where we have exactly the same 11 for England as lords, having had five changes here in the middle. So we've just got a review here as we're talking.

3:52Simon Doull:Yeah, England are at the moment, anyway, 180 for four. Joe Root has played quite magnificently, 73 not out. James Root is in partnership with him at the moment. He's played some pleasing strokes. It's actually quite a big innings, this, for James Root. The chances are that Jamie Smith will come back in and he will also miss out. but he's not had the best of test matches so far, so it's important for him that he... Ball's going way over the top of the stumps. That he puts on a good show here and enhances his reputation with the bat, or at least shows people that haven't seen him play for Somerset that he deserves to be in the class of a test keeper batsman.

4:32Look, it's been a difficult initiation, you would say. Oh, hang on. I cannot believe that. How far over the top, Butch? Wow, that's hit him in the box. He's a short man.

4:46Simon Doull:It didn't bounce. How far over the top? Oh, my goodness. It's clipped the top of the bale. Jameson has another one. And James Rue is out. So we were just about to talk about how important this inning was for James Rue in the context of his burgeoning career. But he's just fallen to the very impressive Carl Jameson in England. A five down and staring down the battle. Jordan Cox will come out to join him right now. Stuart talked about earlier today about the lack of bounce on day four day five here at the oval Yeah, I think that surprised us all about it Taking the mickey a touch about it going over the top But you talked about it a lot about the sort of lack of bounce and the taller bowl has become a bit more difficult Come day four day five banging the ball into the surface So in Mark Elam talked about play with Mark Elam at the start of my career at Nottinghamshire and He always would talk about surfaces day four five taller bowlers being really useful on those pitches day four and five because you can't get forward to them.

5:41So you just hang back to taller bowls and then it skids at you and you're in big trouble. So, yeah, Jameson's been fantastic today. You know, the blow coverage is under 20 in Test Match cricket. He had a really off first innings, didn't he? That is not him. He just couldn't find a rhythm. That happens to absolutely everybody. And he's come back, got a bit of luck early doors, which you sometimes need, court, square leg, and then has bowled beautifully. What's he now? Getting to his 13th over three for 36. He's proven why he's been such an incredible Test match bowler for quite a long period of time.

6:12Simon Doull:So in the end, England's wrapped up New Zealand's second innings for 362, leaving England with a very unlikely 463 to win. Let's talk about England's batting. Jameson started off brilliantly. Matt Henry always probing with the new ball. Emilio Gay looked again like he was to the man of ball Gordon to be an opener, played some brilliant strokes. And then I guess he might figure he's very, very unlucky, not just because he clipped it out the middle of the bat to mid-wicket, but because Ratchin Ravindra caught one. It's that stay classy, Amelia. I mean, it was a classy shot. You're going to get out.

6:52You don't want to get out prodding or poking at one. He's played a really nice cricket shot, just hit a little bit in the air straight to Ratchin Ravindra. You look at it and you think any other day of the week, he's going to play the same shot. it might find the boundary. So again, he looked like he belonged. I felt even throughout this test match, he really looked like he belonged. He's got a calmness about him, some composure about him. And he looks like he's in it for the long haul from what we've seen. So that was good. I thought, you know, duck it. You look at what O 'Rourke's ability is that extra bounce.

7:29And he just couldn't get on top of his dismissal. Toe end of the bat to Matt Henry. There have just been moments where I think England were always going to have to play the way they played. They've lost a couple of wickets doing so, but they were always going to have to play that way.

7:45Simon Doull:Now, we've spoken about Joffre Archer and sort of building his loads for Test match cricket, having been in the IPL. Jacob Bethel failed again. Out. How was he out? Let's just remind ourselves. LBW to Jameson. So the second time, I think, in the series so far that he's been nailed LBW by right-time bowler around the wicket. He's had an enormous lack of cricket. I mean, since making that brilliant century at Sydney in the Ashes, seven, maybe seven, six innings, six, seven innings in the IPL and no first-class cricket. And it looks like it, doesn't it? It does. I mean, there's two ways to look at this, actually.

8:24It looks like he's getting really good balls. so one at Laws went underground he couldn't do anything about he's had two LBWs that look like they've nipped back and that's a real problem so I as a bowler think brilliant bowling nothing the batter can do then I talk to Dinesh Kartik the coach he's going foot's going in the wrong place so I look at the bowling brilliant bowling four in a row pretty good balls it's just not working for you at the moment but I think there's probably a technical issue there that he's missing balls that are nipping back and hitting the stump. And if there's been one criticism of this England coaching group, it's very much play your way, play with freedom, etc., etc.

9:08But they don't iron out technical problems live. It's like, well, suddenly you're out the side. Well, why didn't you help me fix something as it was evolving? So that might be something that Marcus Truscottet will be looking at with Jacob Bethel. But I think ultimately, we've seen it with Ben Stokes over the past sort of 18 months. If you're not spending time batting in the middle, it's quite hard to get used to scoring runs, I suppose. And it's actually one of the positives, maybe the only positive of Ben Stokes missing the curfew, is he's gone and got 95 and actually spent some time batting for the first time.

9:44Simon Doull:In goodness how... Yeah. In a long time. Butch, do you think this... You had a little chuckle there. Yeah. Because I know exactly what you were thinking. You were thinking, you know, it's always the same. The bowlers never get any credit. It's always batter error. So I saw that. I knew that look on your face. I just wonder, are you seeing anything technically? When you're not played a lot of cricket, you search for the ball a little bit from a batting point of view. You want to feel the ball on the bat. There's no doubting this guy's talent. I don't think any of us are ever questioning the talent that Jacob Bethel has and the fact that he will play a lot of cricket for England in the next sort of four, five, six years.

10:23Do you think he's just searching for it a little bit? Is there just something missing slightly, some little tweak that he can do?

10:29Simon Doull:We had quite a good look at it, actually. We were comparing Jacob in the innings at Sydney. His footwork was sort of immaculate. His hands were nice and close to the body, barely made a bad shape in the entire time. And then we sort of split-screened it with what's happened over the course of this series. and he's making involuntary movements and that kind of plays into what you're talking about. If you haven't spent a lot of time at the middle, you're not filling the ball in the middle of the bat regularly, you're not out there for long periods of time, you will involuntarily move yourself into positions where you're searching for the ball a bit and I'd be pretty sure that he has no idea that he's moving in a completely different way to the way that he was at Sydney and that goes back to your point about the coaches kind of picking this stuff up and going, whoa, whoa, have a look at this.

11:16Simon Doull:This was great. This is where you are at the moment. You know what to do. You can fix it. That type of thing. Harry Brook and Joe Root then put on an incredible, well, it was 97 run partnership. Yeah, 97, 96 run partnership. And Harry Brook played as Harry Brook does. He just came out and put back to the ball immediately. I mean, he is, regardless of, people will have a go at him for throwing his wicket away and not being responsible when he bats and all this type of stuff. But goodness me, he's good fun to watch. You have to take the good with the bad with Harry Brook because there will be times, a la the Oval here last year against India, game was probably in the bag.

11:55Those are the moments you just want him to be slightly better at, but you can't chastise the bloke for averaging 55 and playing. And I don't like the term, that's the way he plays because I think that often is a bit of a cop out. He is a very, very good player. and he is a frightening guy, I would imagine, to bowl to in a mood. There was only one way that he was going to play today. Okay, didn't kick on from his half century, but he's box office. You want to watch him back. And yes, you want to watch him back for longer. And there's, you know, Test Match Triple 100. He's got five other scores over 150, I think, in Test Match cricket.

12:34So, you know, you sometimes have to temper the throwing something, you a cup of tea at the television when he gets out in a strange way with just sit back and enjoy it because you'll enjoy the ride for quite some time.

12:48Simon Doull:That wasn't the case today, he was got out, Matt Henry again, keeper up, brilliant performance again from him. You know Harry pretty well in the dressing room, does he sort of dwell on stuff afterwards or does he sort of park the last innings and just go on to the next one, what's he like? I wouldn't say he dwell on things, he loves batting so he's naturally frustrated if he gets out he'll be in the change room sort of like oh like he won't be throwing kit and ranting and raving but he'll be sat there going oh that could have carried on longer ultimately great run scorers joe root is the perfect example of it they love batting they love being out there they don't want to be sat in the changing room so any time there's they get out there's a there's a natural frustration there yeah um but i think Harry's mindset is he'd prefer to be actually gotten out putting the bowler under pressure than gotten out by a ball where he felt like he's a sitting duck.

13:41And he's that talented and that good a ball striker, he can do it on the majority of occasions, to be honest. So, you know, I think sometimes we lose sight because there was that example here at the Oval against India where he got an amazing 100 but didn't get us over the line, which it was his responsibility to get us over the line in that period. He got out and his back was thrown and all over the place. There can be that frustration, but ultimately, he does average 55. Yeah. He's been, he's scored important runs for England and he's very dangerous to have coming in at number five. And I think also, Butch, when you look at, he might now have to just go away and think, okay, how am I going to play when the keeper comes up?

14:20That goes back to the coaching side of things. How can I play now when the keeper comes up to 17?

14:26Simon Doull:Everybody's going to do it. Yeah. 77 to 85 mile an hour bowlers. If the keeper's good enough to stand up. How am I now going to approach my innings and how I play? So that's something he will hopefully look at. Yeah, Harry Brook made a sparkling 58. I think his 50 came up in 33 deliveries, which is the fourth fastest, I think, at the oval, third fastest, before he was undone by Matt Henry. James Roo has come and gone as we did that live. Let's talk about Joe Roo. Joe is 75 not out. He's gone past 14 ,000 test runs. He's gone past 2 ,000 runs against, or is it 1 ,000 against New Zealand? 1 ,000 against New Zealand, 2 ,000 at the Oval.

15:04Simon Doull:2 ,000 runs here at the Oval. I mean, every time he walks to the crease, it seems, in the last year or so, a record has fallen one way or another. And so many words have been said about him. But I'm going to ask you to say some more. Well, dare I say, and I mean this in the greatest of compliments, is you don't really notice him. He just scores runs, doesn't he? He ties it down to third man. He pushes it through extra cover, clips it off his pads. And I always used to say when I was playing with him, he'd get to 30 and you're like, how's he got to 30? And I feel like today he's got to 70. Joe Rubingo, that is.

15:37Yeah, he's got to 75 and you're like, how's he got to 75? Whereas Harry Brook, you remember him dancing and hitting him over extra cover or backing away and slicing it over backward point. Joe just is an amazing accumulator and he'll be lining up coming back tomorrow. Yes, he knows this game is lost. I'm 99 % certain. and B, he can score some runs. I just don't know that he has that in his DNA either, the give up. Not many Yorkshiremen do. They don't have the give up in their DNA. He'll be talking to Jordan Cox tonight in the morning and saying, we can do it. We can do it. Okay, we all feel that it's a 98 % in favour of New Zealand probably.

16:20I'm not sure what a win for... Oh, did you go 99? I went 99. How did you get that extra percent? Well, Joe's still at the crib. I'm giving an extra percent for Joe. But look, he's brilliant. He is brilliant to watch. He's one of those guys that, again, would be just so frustrating to Bolton because as Brodie said, you look up the scoreboard, all of a sudden he's got runs against his name and you think, where did we leak those runs? But, you know, he's just a brilliant, brilliant player and the records will keep coming.

16:51Simon Doull:Yeah, couldn't agree more. So we've reached the end of day four. New Zealand are walking off the pitch. One or two of the bowlers looking a little weary, and that may be something in the back of Joe Root's mind with the test match at Trent Bridge coming up so quickly that maybe forced them into making a couple of changes themselves. Their bowling attack is high, high class. But it's been hard work wheedling people out on this pitch here at the Oval, which has been fantastic. But as we sit here at the moment, New Zealand very much on top. They've played the better cricket throughout, haven't they?

17:25Simon Doull:They've been smarter. Their plans have been better. They've executed them better. The batting has been more ruthless. And so England 182 for five at the close of day four. Joe Root is not out, along with Jordan Cox. England need 281 runs to win. And New Zealand require five wickets to win the match. Level the series and take us all to Trent Bridge with a bit of a thriller at Brodie's home ground. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Is it all finished yet? the Broad Pavilion the game I was like end of day four we've got to come back tomorrow the Broad Pavilion the Broad Pavilion no it looks more complete than when we were last right but it's not ready yet okay not quite ready but we'll be ready tomorrow day five where we're expecting New Zealand to wrap up a victory but who knows there might be a little surprise in store with a Joe Root special join us then hope you've enjoyed today we'll speak to you tomorrow