England vs New Zealand: England strike late after New Zealand dominate day one

0:01Yeah, gone! Gone! He gets his fairytale ending! An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit of First Time win is the most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final Test Wicket for Stuart Ford. It's ended, we'll win the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope. Day one of the third test between England and New Zealand for the Crow Thorpe Trophy. It's been a scorcher up here in Nottingham. A couple of scorching blokes right next to me, Kumar Sangakara and Simon Dahl. Gentlemen, it's been a tough old day for England, and if you thought that getting the band back together, the A-team back on the park, was going to turn England's fortunes around from the oval, you'd be sorely mistaken.

0:55Really bad toss to lose, but my goodness, New Zealand play well. Made them pay. And two guys who had sort of struggled. I know Conway got 41 at Lords in that second inning. Still looked a bit scratchy, but yeah, they made them pay to a magnificent partnership. And when you win the toss and bat first, exactly what you want. They hadn't scored many runs through the series, Latham or Conway. You get an opportunity on a flat one in tough, tough bowling conditions. You've got to make the most of it. And that's all you could ask. Obviously both been dismissed at very similar times, which we'll get on to.

1:29but I thought they just set the tone from New Zealand's point of view and did it brilliantly. And also in terms of the side New Zealand put out, big changes there as well in terms of their bowling, so they needed a big first innings. Yeah, that's right. And they provided that very well. Yeah, Phillips, Henry and Jameson all out. Phillips had a side injury. Henry had done his calf sort of part of the way through his heroics in the second innings at the Oval, and Jameson was left out for workload management, so they were significantly weaker, you would think, anyway than they had been at the Oval.

2:02For England, Stokes, Bashir, Smith and Atkinson all came back into the side. How important is it, Kumar, that you get the opportunity on a blazing hot day? Let's face it, it's June. Not hot for you, but it's June in England. We're up in the sort of mid-30s again. Fast outfield, good pitch. To kind of give yourself a bit of a chance, get in and then go big. Yeah, I think that get in part is very easy because the pitch can be flat, but with the Duke's ball, got the seamers running in, there's always going to be some movement on offer. And I thought, as Dooley mentioned, Conway especially, battled through a little bit of uncertainty.

2:40His footwork wasn't great, his alignment wasn't great, but the longer that those two spent out there, Latham and Conway, you saw how much easier it got. And once they got through that first hour, then of course, batting became easier there They had to bring the spin on early in terms of Bashir. And then actually they had a really good mindset of, OK, now we're in. We're also going to look to score runs. They just didn't try and just defend too much or not allow bad balls to go unpunished. And they did that really well. I thought they batted really well together. And then England had, unfortunately, they seemed, I would say, a little bit behind the game in terms.

3:23Because usually when I see Ben Stokes before, he always captains quite dynamically. Yes, he tried to move the field around, took out third slip. There was one chance that went to begging. But I thought maybe bringing in Joe Root a little bit earlier, I thought he was also struggling in terms of the heat and the flatness of the pitch. His bowlers weren't able to give that much, but all credit to the New Zealand batters. Yeah, incredible partnership for them. 317, it's the highest partnership for any wicket for New Zealand in England. So an astonishing performance from both of them. And at one point, in fact, probably around about midway between lunch and tea time, we all thought that they might go on and bat the entire day.

4:03Brodie did try and predict it. He did, yeah, as Taylor and Marsh famously did back on Ather's debut back in 1969. No, 1989. So they didn't quite manage it. 317. England made to toil quite mercilessly, actually. And perhaps a problem for England, despite having Archer and Atkinson back with a new ball, and Tong and Stokes in the attack as well, was the fact that Shahid Bashir just could not find a length in order to slow things up, hold the game so that he could rotate the seamers at the other end. Yeah, and it's the one thing you look at from a spin bowling point of view. Why are you picking a spinner?

4:46You think in second innings it's going to turn. He's had good record here the last two test matches, Pakistan and Zimbabwe. But you also want his role to be in that first innings, if it is flat, to not concede runs. And if he can go at three and over to give your seamers a bit of a break, give your seamers a rest and keep things relatively tight. But they found it hard to set fields to him one side of the wicket. I thought, as Kumar mentioned, New Zealand were quite aggressive against him, which kind of put him off his length a little bit. But he just couldn't find that consistent line nor length to keep the runs in check.

5:20So therefore, Stokes is having to go back to his seamers more consistently than he would want to, and they're not getting quite the rest that they would like either. Having said that, he did have an opportunity to break the partnership, didn't he? He had the big chance, or half a shout, and I think that was part of the problem. Bashir bowling to Devon Conway on 71, and as we looked at the replays, it turned out that the ball had hit the back, but it hit pad first, and we would have got three reds had there been a review. So he was only on 71. The score was 157 at the time. So there was an opportunity there for him to perhaps get into the game and break that opening partnership.

6:03They tell me that baby brain is a thing. Only for the girls. Yeah, well, that's what they say. But Jamie Smith's had two moments today. He was the one that called that. Bat first. He said, no, bat first, bat first. Well, it did hit the pad first. would have been out. And then obviously he's had the little moment with the catch as well. So maybe it is a thing. I don't know. Maybe it's a thing for blokes as well. But it's actually a good point to make because with being a wicketkeeper, unless you have a short leg fielder or a silly mid-off, your eyes are the best to see what the ball hits first.

6:39And, oh. Oh, hang on. Hang on. Looks like we might have a wicket here. Yes, we do. Third wicket of the day. Ratchin Ravindra has tried to pull a length ball, really. It went straight up the chimney, and Jamie Smith caught it behind the stumps. They've all run to Shoaib Bashir. Ah, Shoaib Bashir pulled off an incredible diving stop, I think, which ended up with Ravindra back on strike. So Gus Atkinson has picked up his first wicket of the Test match. 361 for three as we near the close, and the very dangerous free-scoring Ravindra is on his way. Going back to Jamie Smith. Sorry, I think we should go back to baby brain again.

7:18For Ravindra, yeah. That's mad. That's not a great shot. What are we? We're probably three minutes, four minutes away from the close of play and England have picked up a third. Ben Stokes is absolutely delighted. And as I've said, they all rushed to Shai Bashir because he nearly knocked himself out saving a boundary, which meant that Ravindra ended up on strike. So he gets the credit. Back to Jamie Smith again. he dropped a catch Latham on 129 he got a lot of stick during the winter for his performance perhaps with the bat and with the gloves against Australia and rather inexplicably spilled an easy chance down the leg side which would have sent Latham back for 129 when the score was 276.

8:04I can't work out how he dropped it, can you? No, I thought he moved really well, he was right behind the ball, down the leg side So he moved really well to it and he had everything covered, but the ball just seemed to rush him and he hardly got a glove. He hit him straight probably in the chest, maybe just a little bit off the glove. So that was, like you said, it's very hard to sometimes work out why someone who missed a catch, especially with the gloves on. But he's a very competent wicker keeper. Keeping is also about the work you do in terms of the prep. So I've seen a lot of wicker keepers.

8:36I mean, Ben Fawkes is kind of an extreme example, the amount of prep he does, but that's what really, that's what it really takes for you to be in rhythm. And keeping is about rhythm, constantly repeating these drills and these catching exercises, moving your feet, so that you are in rhythm to what's happening. So when you had a break and you come back, unless you have done that prep, takes a while for that rhythm to come back. So maybe that's something he can look at. But yeah, easy catch dropped, and those chances, like in the last test, have cost England. Yeah, I mean, the chances were few and far between.

9:10There was an edge through the slips very early on from Tom Latham. And pretty much nothing else happened beyond the two. England had just moved the third slip out to Gully and went right there. Yeah, it is the definition of not being able to take a trick. So it took until 5.24 in the afternoon before England finally broke that partnership. Latham was the first one to go. Conway followed just two runs later. And then we have the two left-houners of Nicholls and Ravindran. Ravindrian, and I think, as I say the name Nicholls, Joffre Archer has just nicked him off. Jamie Smith taking the catch behind the stump.

9:44So England now have four as we get, well, probably the last over of day one. And the crowd, let's be honest, the players have had it tough out there in the middle in terms of the heat. Lots of guys going down with cramp and plenty of drinks breaks and all the rest of it. But the crowd here at Trent Bridge, who have by and large stuck it out throughout the whole day have been subjected to that heat. There's no shelter here at all, is there? We've been very cosy up in the house. Quite cold that time. That was brilliant from Archer. And that's backed up because of the really awful shot from Ratchin Ravindra.

10:20Archer's now got a little bit more of a pep in his step for the last over because of a really poor shot from Ratchin Ravindra. And Nicholls, he's got a beauty. He's nicked off. Maybe he could have left at Sanger, I don't know. but he's just got an absolute beauty from around the weekend. It was a great delivery. Terrific delivery. As a batter, you're trying to play it as well. Come back to the point you made early on as well about what a great opening partnership it was, but could they have kicked on? Devon Conway especially looked a bit tired. And when you are tired, you've got to manage your kind of output in terms of your physicality.

10:52So you've got to be able to push and pull, rein yourself in, allow Leitham to take a bit more of a lead because if they'd gone in one or max two down at the end of the day, That would have been all aces in the hands of New Zealand coming out tomorrow morning. This has got shades of the Headingley Test match last year in the India series to me, where I think what were India at the close of play, 360 or something on the close of play, and then England mopped up the rest of the wickets and kept them within sight. England ended up winning that Test match. I think India had several opportunities with the bat over the course of that Test to kind of bury England.

11:30and Stokes, having had a really tough day, will probably be looking at this and going, you know what, we've got them four down now. Maybe 80 for the next six wickets or so. The pitch is still very, very flat. They might be thinking, you know, we could get a lead or parity in the first innings and turn it into a one-inning shootout. Well, from tea, you think about their mood at tea as they went into that dressing room. If they'd have said in their wildest dreams, four down at stumps, Ben Stokes would have chewed your arm off for that. I would have thought. And now they've got them. And they've also got Willow Rourke starting first thing in the morning.

12:06Night watchman out there, first thing in the morning, who averages two, I think, in his test career. No one is quite a good blocker. That's why they sent him out as the night watchman. But in the end, you'd say England would have taken that all day on a very, very flat one to be four down after being none down at T. They'll be absolutely over the moon with that. So, I've spoken about Shabashir's inability to sort of hold the game at all for Stokes. But as a general rule, Quicks have run in all day and it's not been a bad performance from England with the ball at all. No, they've tried. They've tried.

12:40They kept their discipline. Maybe a little bit too straight from around the wicket to the left-handers, especially Josh Tang. Stokes hasn't bowled a lot, but he did get that important breakthrough. So, I think the fast bowlers and Root as well with that one wicket. they've done a great job. Yeah, they certainly have. So after all of the chat around curfew and behaviour and apologies and non-apologies and all the rest of it, we're finally into the action here at Trent Bridge. Belting wicket as always here. As far as commentary is concerned, there is only one real reference to bad behaviour, and that was Michael Atherton's rather good Freudian slip where he mentioned that Ben Stokes hadn't brought himself on until 12.30pm.

13:27Be alright, not again. Although I think, if you think about it, he's actually factually correct, but he then corrected himself, making it sound like, oh no, he didn't use the words PM, he said midnight. He said it didn't come on until half past midnight. And that was pretty much the only reference to it. The crowd gave Ben Stokes a pretty good reception when he came out as captain. they've had to watch a couple of Kiwis bat the house down for the majority of the day but at the end of it all I think England and their fans will be relatively happy with how things have finished up with New Zealand four down so any other thoughts on how this test match might go gents we've seen the odd ball take a bit of spin the odd ball take a piece out of the surface if we get another blazing hot day tomorrow whilst not being a minefield that the game could start to accelerate once we get into sort of day three, day four, do you think?

14:22Yeah, it could. I think New Zealand would be very disappointed if they're not somewhere in the vicinity of 550, though. And England should feel pretty good if it's anything under 500. From the T score today, I'll mention it again, if it's anything under 500, I think England could be pretty happy with their performance. As we said, blazing hot, flat wicket, home ground for Ben Duckett. We know what Joe Root does here at this ground. I mean, he could set his tent up and just bat for a day and a half on this type of surface. So they have the players and the quality. And if New Zealand aren't in that 550 to 600 range, they have undersold themselves, I feel, after the start they got.

15:03Yeah, absolutely. It was a great opportunity and platform to bat England almost out of this past match if they got beyond that 550 mark. Well, they still might. They might, but I think England will fancy a couple of wickets tomorrow early, try and break that in. And if they end up, as Dooley said, under 500, England would consider that a good positive foundation. But I'm also interested to see how Santner bulls on this, because I think it's going to be so important for New Zealand as the game goes on. Yeah, of course. New Zealand have the specialist spinner in Mitch Santner. And you would imagine that he would be able to hold a length and get a little bit more out of the surface than the relatively inexperienced Shahid Bashir.

15:43OK, well, that's it for the day. Just a reminder of the records that have tumbled for New Zealand. 317, their highest partnership for any wicket in England against England, and also the most runs in a day for a New Zealand team in England as well. So it's been a terrific day for them. England have charged back a little bit in taking four wickets in the final session of the day. But that is it from us here at Trent Bridge. New Zealand, 361 for four, 150s for Latham and Conway, and good humour from all in the ground. I'm expecting to see a little bit, something akin to a MASH unit on the way back to the car tonight because one or two might have overindulged in the heat outside.

16:25So it could be fun. We'll report on that tomorrow. Thanks for joining us. Yeah, gone. Gone, he gets his fairytale ending. An epic way to go to a Test Match 100. The London Spirit, a first time win is the most remarkable thing you'll probably ever see in cricket. 604 and final test wicket that's new for. It's India who will win the T20 World Cup. England's captain Ben Stokes, while he is there, England have hope.