Kiwis hold off England fightback on brilliant opening day in Christchurch
Day One: New Zealand v England, Hagley Oval
NEW ZEALAND 319–8
Oh the beautiful juxtapositions of life. From the cauldron and white-hot atmosphere of Liverpool’s very own Coliseum and their remarkable demolition of the reigning European Champions Real Madrid in the Champions League it was an immediate channel hop and from football to cricket, and from Anfield to the wonderfully picturesque Hagley Oval in Christchurch for day one in this 3 Test Match series and yet more watching of the England cricket team “through the night”. Being a veteran campaigner since early childhood in such sleep deprived and self inflicted sports watching endeavours, New Zealand is by far the easiest of these seemingly crazed pursuits of watching cricket past the witching hour and long into the following morning. 10pm local UK time is my particular start time and as the mythical witching hour strikes two hours later here it’s already 1pm New Zealand time the following day, a day I’ll enter a minute later but still 13 hours behind my Kiwi friends. The juxtapositions, should you wish to find them, do not stop there. For you have a mad-dog Englishman, wrapped against the biting cold of a sub-zero middle England in a duvet and hot water bottle, tea and biscuits aplenty on hand, a misty darkness enveloping an outside world as a wintry fog descends. Whilst nearly 12,000 miles away and in a different day in a future I’ve not entered yet are thousands of Kiwis and England’s travelling “Barmy Army”, resplendent in shorts and t-shirts beneath a baking sun, high 20’s temperature (Celsius), cool boxes and picnics at the ready for the day’s play and sitting on the magnificent tiered grass banks of an oval cricket ground of my dreams. But dreams would mean sleep, even at 3am as the third and final session gets underway, and who needs sleep when there’s a Test Match underway on the other side of the world and the early morning sunshine has given way to blustery afternoon winds in the Māori named city of Ōtautahi?
3am in the afternoon? Witching hours? Hot water bottles and t-shirts and picnics? A Dickensian fog amid the sparkling sunshine? This, as clearly demonstrated, can all get rather confusing and discombobulating, or perhaps I just need some sleep?
Now that we’ve set the scene, shall we delve into the far more important action that transpired on the field of play?
Winning the toss and inserting the hosts into bat first was an easy decision for England skipper Ben Stokes. As ever, the day one wicket here in Christchurch was a green and grassy one and although not as strikingly green as I’ve seen in New Zealand before, green enough to persuade the England captain that his bowlers needed first dibs with the ball in hand. The wicket will become more straw coloured as the Test Match progresses and easier to bat on and once again, if all goes according to the plans of those cricketing revolutionaries Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum (both Kiwis by birth), their charges will be chasing a 4th inning target for victory.
All of which is for the future.
The here and now and a day one recap sees New Zealand slightly ahead of the game after rebuking a third session comeback from their visitors and a rather sloppy and disjointed opening day from England. The middle session was particularly poor from the visitors but the day as a whole was littered with no balls and wides (21 in total) as well as a litany of overthrows gifting the Kiwi batsmen boundary 4’s to add to their individual totals. At 104–2 at the Lunch Break and 193–3 at the Tea Interval the hosts were firmly ahead on the day so far and a pattern set of repeated 50 run partnerships between Tom Latham and Kane Williamson before the legendary Williamson did likewise with Rachin Ravindra and then Daryl Mitchell. By the Tea Break, and Williamson unbeaten on 77 not out, England were thankful that Ravindra knocked a gentle full toss (and awful delivery) from the bowling of Shoaib Bashir straight at Zak Crawley fielding close in and Daryl Mitchell, after battling his way to 19, then skied a top-edged hook straight into the gleeful hands of Harry Brook at deep third man, gifting Brydon Carse his second and final wicket of the day.
England needed a fightback after the Tea Break and with “God on his side” according to ex England captain David Gower on TV commentary duties, they received it in the unlikely form of spinner Shoaib Bashir. One doubts the 21 year old would have expected to bowl 20 overs on an opening day of a Test Match and on a green and grassy wicket too, but aided and abetted by some loose and reckless shots from Rachin Ravindra, Tom Blundell and Matt Henry in particular, the young man from Chertsey in Surrey ended today with figures of 4–69 and at 298–8, New Zealand had lost 5 wickets in the final session for just 105 runs. Kudos falls heavily in the direction of the pugnacious Glenn Phillips (41 not out from 58 balls received) and should he and/or overnight partner Tim Southee (10 not out from 19 balls received) rack up another 50–75 runs tomorrow morning, New Zealand will surely be sitting pretty after their first dig with the bat.
At 319–8 after day one I have New Zealand slightly ahead, thanks in the main to a wonderful 93 from Kane Williamson, another Kiwi to lose his wicket to a rather loose shot off the bowling of Gus Atkinson. Tomorrow’s first session, as is so beautifully often the case, is crucial to the destiny of this Test Match, and I for one cannot wait.
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.