Brook bashes the Kiwis as the Aussies take Day 1 in Adelaide
Day One: New Zealand v England, Basin Reserve
ENGLAND 280
NEW ZEALAND 86–5 (trail by 194 runs)
Welcome to day one of hopefully five (but this Test Match will barely run past day three) and “From Wellington to Wellington with Love” as I bring you a flavour of the 2nd Test Match between New Zealand and England in the oh so beautifully picturesque Basin Reserve and cricket ground plumb centre in the middle of a busy Wellington roundabout! Why the strangely oblique and grand title? Simply put, I LOVE watching cricket through the night and especially so from beautiful New Zealand and I reside in a rain filled Wellington in central England currently being battered by raging storms as a world and 12,000 miles away you’ll find another Wellington bathed in summer cricket sunshine. Oh the strange vagaries of the time matrix! From a darkened day and night of rain incessantly teeming down the windowpanes to a glorious morning of bright sunshine on the other side of the world and a day in the future I won’t see for at least two hours past the 10pm start time here in England as it’s 11am in another Wellington far away from here, and Kiwi captain Tom Latham has won the toss, inserted England into bat, and yet another incredible day of Test Match cricket is about to begin.
Also, and breaking in tradition in a quite pleasing fashion, I shall be covering the highlights of the 2nd Test Match at the Adelaide Oval between the two heavyweights of Test Match cricket, namely Australia and their visitors from India, but that would be getting ahead of ourselves as first we must return back across the Tasman Sea, and to Wellington with love, and a day of cricket that even by England’s recent revolutionary standards was quite spectacular indeed. Asked to bat first on a typically green tinged wicket, it was no surprise whatsoever to see England go immediately on the attack, showcased perfectly by opening batsman Zak Crawley clubbing Kiwi legendary bowler Tim Southee for a straight boundary 6 from the last ball of his first over. A 6 in the first over of a Test Match! Crawley tried to bat his way into form, and failed on just 17 to follow his opening partner Ben Duckett back to the cricketing “hutch” and at 21–2 England were on the attack but losing wickets into the bargain. Where Kiwi Matt Henry brilliantly accounted for the wickets of Crawley and Duckett, Nathan Smith would soon snag the next two of Jacob Bethell and the prized wicket of Joe Root spectacularly caught one handed at slip goalkeeper style by a flying Daryl Mitchell and at 43–4 at the Drinks Break, England were still on a pun unintended all out attack, but losing wickets at an alarming rate.
Enter the hero of the Christchurch Test Match a week ago, Harry Brook.
In partnership with vice-captain Ollie Pope, Brook continued the attacking charge after the mid-morning break for drinks with aplomb, sending the ball in spectacular fashion to every rounded corner of the Basin Reserve on his way to a pre-Lunch half century from just 37 balls received but more importantly, stabilising England’s innings once again as he did a week ago in Christchurch. With Pope resting at the Lunch Break 28 not out, the England pair had rattled along in an unbroken partnership of a run-a-ball 81 in the second hour of play and at 124–4 at Lunch, it was a morning’s play of equal triumph for both teams. Post Lunch, the England batsmen first reached a century partnership (from just 103 balls received) and as Brook continued on his merry way accumulating runs without the aid of the six lives he received from the butter-fingered Kiwis a week ago, Pope reached his half-century and looked set for a big score alongside his teammate until a false shot accounted for his wicket, and the first of 3 for the mightily impressive Kiwi fast bowler Will O’Rourke, when on 66.
A cursory glance at the England batting card, and final all out total of 280, will show you an unequal tale of horror for their first four batsmen (total scored between them of just 36) and their final five batsmen totalling just 33. So it’s an easy statement to make that their innings rested on this mid-innings partnership between Brook and Pope and 174 runs that could well prove match winning come day 3 or possibly, but improbably, by day 4. All of which is for the future and for the here and now, Brook reached his 8th Test Match century from just 91 balls received before running himself out on the cusp of the Tea Break for a swashbuckling and quite mesmerising at times 123 containing 11 boundary 4’s and 5 boundary clearing 6’s. 15 minutes post the Tea Break, England lost their final 3 wickets in quick time and although a final total of 280 looked light, their bowlers soon showed this 1st innings total in its true light of late afternoon New Zealand sunshine.
With under 2 hours of play left in the day New Zealand counter-attacked and at 53–1, the first of these 2 hours of play were theirs. But the second hour was all England, with first captain Ben Stokes bowling his opposite number Tom Latham for a dogged 17 before Christchurch “Man of the Match” Brydon Carse had another hour of Test Match cricket in his still fledgling career he won’t forget in a hurry. The tall fast bowler from Cape Town, South Africa first made a sensational diving grab to remove the dangerous Rachin Ravindra for just 3 off the bowling of Chris Woakes before taking the ball himself and bowling legendary batsman Kane Williamson with the very epitome of a cricketing “Jaffa” that jagged off the green wicket before crashing into his off stump. It was as beautiful a fast bowling delivery as you could wish to see but, unforgivably, the tall fast bowler had overstepped and bowled a no-ball. Consoling words from captain Ben Stokes immediately followed and soon enough, and at a further cost of just 17 runs, Carse got his man again, and the equally dangerous Daryl Mitchell for just 6, and from 53–1 after the first of two final hours on day one, New Zealand collapsed by the end of day stumps to 86–5 to trail England on 1st innings by a whopping 194 runs.
All told, and on just one day of absorbing Test Match cricket, 366 total runs were scored at a cost of 15 wickets and England are fully on top of a match racing into a second day of 5 that won’t last long into day 4.
An incredible day of Test Match cricket. Talking of which…
Across the Tasman Sea in Adelaide we have a resurgent Australia, their backs to the wall after a heavy and humbling defeat two weeks ago in Perth, and intent on levelling the series with a difficult to predict India. Easily the two best teams in world cricket, both are arguably trading on former glories with ageing superstars whilst slowly transitioning and introducing new players for the years ahead and interestingly in 2025 alone, respective summer tussles home and away with England. But today, and in the much vaunted “Pink Ball Test Match” under the lights of the Adelaide Oval, it was Australia’s day and particularly so the gnarly, snarly, gentle giant fast bowler that is Mitchell Starc. The 34 year old from Baulkham Hills near Sydney dismissed Indian wunderkind Yashasvi Jaiswal with the very first ball of the Test Match and a beautifully swinging delivery that beat the defences of the 22 year old superstar before rattling through the heart of the Indian batting order to finish with career best innings figures of 6–48. “He loves the pink ball” exclaimed the ever excitable Mark “Howie” Howard on Fox TV commentary but not before being outdone by colleague Kerry “Skull” O’Keeffe who described a brilliant attacking shot by KL Rahul (before he became Starc’s second victim of six) as akin to “a seagull on a chip, he pounced so quickly”. I LOVE the Aussie commentators almost as much as their fast bowler Scott Boland who pleasingly for me has yet again reclaimed a place in their starting XI and for another of his “dream 15 minutes” (as he had so regularly against England in 2021–2022) he scalped the valuable wickets of both Shubman Gilll and captain Rohit Sharma.
Oh Scotty Boland! Be still my beating heart.
In short, 5 Indian batsmen got cricketing “starts” into the 20’s and 30’s and none more so than their next young superstar in the making Nitish Kumar Reddy who scorched his way to an innings high of 42 before he too succumbed to that man Mitchell Starc again. But 5 Indian batsmen, including both country heroes and cricketing Gods Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli, made only single figure scores on their way to an all out team total of just 180 and under the bright lights of a nighttime Adelaide Oval they rather wilted as the old and the new, the ancient and the modern of new boy Nathan McSweeney and veteran Marnus Labuschagne, powered Australia to 86–1 at the close of play to trail after day one by just 94 runs.
So whether it’s a pink ball or traditional cricket red, under the glare of a Wellington sun or the floodlights of Adelaide, we’ve had quite the day of Test Match cricket on both sides of the Tasman Sea. 632 total runs were scored at the cost of 26 wickets and those auld enemies of Ashes battles past, England and Australia, hold sway in their respective matches.
As the rain continues to tumble here in a darkened Dickensian middle England of Wellington, I can’t wait to see the sunshine from another Wellington a world away in 5 hours time as I wrap this love fest for another day.
My childhood fascination for the grandest game of all will never leave me.
Roll on Day 2.
Thanks for reading. After watching England “through the night” I’ve turned these day by day ramblings into three self-published books to date, the first of which pictured below covers (in the fifth and final part) England’s last tour to New Zealand in early 2023:
"Ashes to Ashes" - link to Amazon
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.