From Wellington to Wellington (via Adelaide) with Love
Day Three: New Zealand v England, Basin Reserve
ENGLAND 280 and 427–6 declared
NEW ZEALAND 125 and 259
England win by 323 runs
As widely expected and indeed predicted by your favourite cricket correspondent, Australia wrapped up a comprehensive and revenge filled defeat of India by 10 wickets in the 2nd Test Match in Adelaide and all within an opening session of play on Day 3 I pleasingly watched live as their auld enemy England had done likewise in Wellington, and with just enough time between matches to make a fresh cup of tea and round of raspberry jam on toast. England, as we’ll come to shortly, easily extinguished any possible hopes of New Zealand’s impossible mission by a thumping victory margin of 323 runs and at roughly 3.50am local time, I had just enough time to rustle up some early morning nourishment for a channel hop at 4am and the start of play at the always beautiful Adelaide Oval. India, starting today 29 runs adrift with only 5 2nd innings wickets remaining needed an impossible mission of their own and yet crumbled in just over an hour’s play, adding just 48 total runs as first Mitchell Starc and then captain Pat Cummins “bounced out” their final 5 wickets before Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja raced to the 19 runs needed for victory from just 20 balls received.
This heavyweight Test Match series is therefore level at 1–1 after thumping wins for each team before Saturday’s 3rd Test at The Gabba in Brisbane.
Meanwhile across the Tasman Sea, and a Wellington a world away from my own personal Wellington here in central England, the sunshine and warm temperatures of the first two days had been replaced by a windy, cloud filled day more akin to an English summer’s day. Regardless, the Basin Reserve continued to look as beautiful as she always does in my cricketing dreams and the visiting tourists from England had two simple objectives, and they achieved them both. First was the accumulation of quick runs to propel their already insurmountable overnight lead of 533 runs to even greater heights of impossibility for their Kiwi hosts to chase and perhaps more importantly, ensure someone was not out at the other end and help guide Joe Root to his 36th Test Match century. Both objectives were achieved in a quick fire 30 minutes, 50 total runs and then, the moment everyone, whether wrapped against the unseasonal cold in Wellington or another Wellington 11,000 miles away beneath a duvet with a hot water bottle for company, had waited for. In typical “Bazball” style, first Joe Root reached his century milestone with an awkward and ungainly “ramp” over the wicket-keeper’s head for a boundary 4, then a gloriously traditional boundary 4 through the covers before edging the next ball received through to Tom Blundell behind the stumps. Captain Ben Stokes immediately declared the innings, leaving himself one short of a milestone on 49 not out and the Kiwis an impossible mission of 583 runs for victory.
The morning’s mission was accomplished.
Chasing 583 runs to win (and a gargantuan 165 more runs than has ever been scored in the 2nd Innings of a Test Match for victory in the entire storied history of this great game) was always going to be not only an impossible mission but an impossible task for New Zealand, but for two sessions they collectively fought their way to the Tea Break on a score of 199–6 and all seemingly in support of the day’s second century maker, wicket-keeper batsman Tom Blundell. Granted a “life” when on 0 and immediately after the Lunch Break when dropped by Jacob Bethell at 3rd Slip, Blundell raced to an almost run-a-ball half century on his home ground before being the recipient of another “life” when on 64 he inside edged a spinning delivery from Shoaib Bashir onto his own stumps, and at quite some force too, yet the bails atop his charmed life of wickets remained firmly in place. Resting at the Tea Break with an exact run-a-ball 86 not out, the 34 year old Wellingtonian reached his 5th and quite brilliant Test Match century soon after the resumption in play but the fall of his wicket (to an equally brilliant reflex, scrambling and diving catch from Ben Duckett at 1st Slip signalled the death knell for the New Zealand innings as a whole as the hosts tumbled from 237–6 to a final all out total of 259. Rather ridiculously and almost comically, England captain Ben Stokes bowled 14 of the worst deliveries of his career, “pies” in the cricketing vernacular, and yet mopped up the Kiwi batting tail to finish with figures of 3 wickets for just 5 runs but rather more importantly, the team he leads with such pride and revolutionary zeal, had triumphed by a whopping 323 runs and, it must be noted, with 2 days and a session to spare.
Post match, Stokes hailed the 2–0 series lead and series win with one Test Match still remaining as “amazing” before singling out Harry Brook and Ollie Pope for their rescue act in a first innings that already seems so long ago and so far distant from the eventual dominant and crushing victory less than two days later. 21 year old Jacob Bethell was lavished with enormous praise too and “certainly shown us what he’s about — and shown the world what he’s about as well”, a collective bowling unit who were “unbelievable with the ball” and a batting order “to have the bravery, backing your own ability, and also the skill to go out and play like that was absolutely phenomenal”, and on a “snake pit” of a wicket too.
Kiwi captain Tom Latham admitted the defeat “hurts” before singling out Harry Brook once again with a telling “they kept their foot on the throat. We haven’t been able to absorb that pressure and put it back on them” as well as both a magnanimous “credit where credit is due. That was fantastic from England” and a rallying cry once more to his troops for the 3rd and final Test Match in Hamilton this Friday: “We’ll turn up with the aspiration of winning the last Test match. We know we haven’t been our best, but we’ll try and turn that around”.
See you at the “village green setting” of Seddon Park in Hamilton on Friday 13th?
I would say this will be the final swan song of my Test Match cricket watching for the year, but who am I kidding? There’s still the Boxing Day Test at the magnificent Melbourne Cricket Ground and the New Year Test in Sydney yet!
Cricket and Christmas. I’ll feel like a kid again.
Marvellous.
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
…and whilst you’re here, I have a new book recently self-published…
"My Ironbridge Summer" - 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.
Those places called Wellington obviously were named for The Duke.