Honours even in Hamilton as rain wins the day in Brisbane
Day One: New Zealand v England, Seddon Park
NEW ZEALAND 315–9
Act One: Kiwis dominate opening session after being sent in
With grey overhead skies failing to besmirch the eternal picturesque beauty of Seddon Park, its tiered grassed banks full on a sold-out “Fancy Dress Saturday”, the overhead conditions aided Ben Stokes in his somewhat easy decision to insert his Kiwi hosts into bat on a wicket that if not as green and grassy as typically seen in a New Zealand summer, there was certainly the prospect of immense help for his quartet of seam bowlers, himself included. The cloudy, muggy and seamer friendly conditions ensured the accurate bowling of Gus Atkinson and a returning Matthew Potts, although ultimately unsuccessful, limited the Kiwi opening batsmen Tom Latham and Will Young to just 46 runs between them by the session splitting break for drinks and Latham had already received the first of two cricketing “lives” today as he edged a tough chance to a sprawling Ben Duckett at 3rd Slip off the bowling of Potts when on 12. It was a half chance in truth, one that “sticks” or doesn’t and it didn’t, and the Kiwi skipper would end the day as his team’s top scorer but as always, that’s getting ahead of ourselves.
Unbeaten in Hamilton since 2013, New Zealand would end the opening session with all 10 wickets still remaining and at 93–0, rested at the Lunch Break having “won” the session comprehensively and set a firm platform for an afternoon assault of runs under clear skies and an intensely hot sun. Again we’re scooting ahead in our excitement for yet another incredible day of Test Match cricket, of extra lives and dropped catches, brilliantly successful ones too, landmarks achieved, wickets thrown away, a dominant position blown, a tenacious fightback, parity on the day, and a guard of honour for a Kiwi legend and one of the greats of the game who typically entertained his home crowd with some lusty blows at the end of a day in his final Test Match that is already set up perfectly for the 3 or possibly all 4 days still to come.
93–0 at the end of the opening session was a little hard on the visitors with Matthew Potts, Gus Atkinson and Ben Stokes all deserving of a credit in the wicket column and all swinging and “nibbling” the ball off the seam from a friendly if gentle paced wicket. Kiwi captain Tom Latham cashed in on his extra life on 12 to reach 18 by the Drinks Break to exactly double that to 36 not out at Lunch whilst his opening partner Will Young passed 1,000 Test Match runs to rest at the break on 42 not out. The 32 year old from New Plymouth has returned to the Test team by dint of Devon Conway being away on paternity leave as well as the clamour and popular demand of a Kiwi public wanting their man back in the fold. Remarkably, Young only scored 2 runs outside of boundary 4’s, of which he hit 10 in the session with some a little streakier than others, but together with his captain they rested at the Lunch Break with their team completely on top.
As the grey overhead clouds have slowly been replaced in Hamilton by a picture of scattered white fluffy clouds amid the blue sky from the opening titles of “The Simpson’s” we cross the Tasman Sea and via the beautifully crazy vagaries of the Time Matrix we reach The Gabba in Brisbane for another “Welcome to Country” ceremony, two more national anthems and the 3rd Test Match between Australia and India. Winning the toss on a patchwork wicket of green and straw coloured grass the visitors inserted their hosts into bat and for 20 minutes or so, Jasprit Bumrah held court brilliantly, Mohammed Siraj was booed relentlessly as the pantomime villain after his cricketing tête-à-tête with Aussie batsman Travis Head in the 2nd Test in Adelaide and as I channel hopped back across the Tasman Sea and back to beautiful Hamilton, Australia had reached a quietly determined 18–0 with Usman Khawaja top scoring so far with 13 not out.
Act Two: England fightback under cloudless skies as rain hits Brisbane
The afternoon session under (almost) cloudless skies in Hamilton set the template for the rest of the absorbing day of cricket that followed in its wake. Landmarks were reached: Kiwi captain Tom Latham reached his 31st Test Match half-century soon after the resumption in play before being gifted yet another “life” when on 53 and in almost an exact replica from earlier in the day and another tough chance dropped by Ben Duckett at 3rd Slip. This one was sharp but far more catchable than earlier but thankfully for Duckett and England, Latham would only add a further 10 runs before he was, in the cricketing vernacular, “strangled” down the leg side with a fine edge through to Ollie Pope behind the stumps giving Matthew Potts his first of 3 thoroughly deserved wickets today. First to fall in the afternoon session was his partner Will Young who failed to add any further runs to the 42 he scored in the morning session before he edged a low catch into the safe hands of Harry Brook at 2nd Slip off the bowling of Gus Atkinson and as with his fast bowling partner Potts, the first of his 3 deserved wickets today. The 26 year old from Chelsea in London has had quite the first year of Test Match cricket and as you will discover shortly, his remarkable personal landmark would arrive later in the day but first, another landmark and another repeating pattern that shaped today’s play: a loose and reckless shot from a Kiwi batsman. Rachin Ravindra crashed two early boundary 4’s before falling to the England plan of bowling to him slightly wider outside his off stump and unable to resist the bait, the 25 year old wafted at a wide delivery from Brydon Carse that Ben Duckett (that man again) finally caught, giving TVNZ commentator Mark Richardson the opportunity to sum up this shot, and so many more to come: “He’s gifted his wicket away just before the Tea Break”. He certainly had, and at 172–3 England had plugged away all afternoon, bowled to their plans, got a little lucky with their rewards, and had scrambled their way back into the Test Match.
Meanwhile across the Tasman Sea, as Brendon “BJ” Julian tried to convince FOX TV viewers that the rain would clear within an hour or so, raising much mirth and ridicule from ex England captain Michael Vaughan and Kerry “Skull” O’Keeffe, the picture painted outside by the TV cameras was of monsoon rain falling in buckets leaving many areas of The Gabba outfield underwater and under the deepest of puddles.
So I made another cup of tea and a fresh round of raspberry jam on toast and settled back down for the sunshine and final session from New Zealand.
Well, it was 3am in the morning and I had another two and a half hours of cricket to enjoy yet!
Act Three: A Guard of Honour for a Champion
With the template for the day already seemingly set, you’ll be unsurprised to learn this continued in a brilliant final session in the sunshine of Hamilton that swayed first in favour of a now dominant England as New Zealand collapsed from 105–0 to 231–7 before a Guard of Honour greeted the soon to be retiring Tim Southee who promptly led a Kiwi fightback that ended the day with honours even and, spectacularly, Mitchell Santner reaching an almost run-a-ball half century with a huge boundary clearing 6 off the final ball of the day! In between and from their score at the Tea Break of 172–3, New Zealand slumped almost immediately to 185–4 with Kane Williamson unable to prevent Matthew Potts’ second wicket of the day either by his soft handed defensive shot or desperate football style kick at a spinning ball ricocheting back onto his stumps and was soon followed back to the Pavilion by Daryl Mitchell who took 20 balls to get off the mark, then sprayed two glorious boundary 4’s in a row before adding a third and then, following the pattern of the day, playing a loose shot outside off stump off the bowling of Gus Atkinson that England captain Ben Stokes scrambled and flung himself desperately to his left to grasp a quite magnificent catch. A fitting way indeed for Gus Atkinson to notch his 50th Test Match wicket and all in the space of a few months in a whirlwind year of 2024 he’ll never forget. 206–5 soon became 212–6 as Glenn Phillips looped a simple catch to Zak Crawley and when Tom Blundell, a recipient of a “life” when on 0 with Joe Root seemingly not ready and aware for a fairly rudimentary catch coming his way at 1st Slip, finally departed for 21 with the team total on 231–7, the hosts had rather crumbled from 105–0 and lost 7 wickets in under 3 hours play for only 126 runs.
Cue the Guard of Honour afforded Tim Southee, his 3 huge boundary clearing 6’s on his way to a typically quick fire and spectacular 23 from just 10 balls received and in partnership with the ice cool Mitch Santner at the other end, the rot of collapse was eased to pass a team total of 300 to end a thrilling day of Test Match cricket at an (almost) honours even position on the day of 315–9. Santner returns in the morning exactly 50 not out with only Will O’Rourke for company and with one aim in mind: Keep as much of the strike to himself and score as heavily and quickly as possible.
TVNZ ended their coverage of the day’s play with a rollcall of highlights accompanied by “Little Black Submarines” by The Black Keys and I thought my late evening/early morning of cricket couldn’t have had a more beautiful ending.
It was exactly 5.30am here in England when I channel hopped back across the Tasman Sea for the final time to be greeted by the always beautiful ex England international Isa Guha and third sexiest voice in all of cricket commentary behind Jim Maxwell and the unrequited love of my cricketing life, Mel Jones. Behind Isa The Gabba looked bleak and dark and with rain still falling, albeit not as heavily as before, play was abandoned for the day almost immediately I tuned in and with FOX TV now rolling their own highlights of a much shortened day in Brisbane than I’d been lucky enough to watch live from Hamilton, “Linger” by The Cranberries serenaded me upstairs to bed.
You know I’m such a fool for you cricket.
And I can’t wait to play the fool again later.
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
As you’re kindly here and read this far…I also released this self-published book last Sunday…
"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.