England lose in Wellington

New Zealand v England, T20 (second of five), The Cake Tin, 3 November 2019

Scorecard

It is always a pleasure to welcome England to these shores, but the publication of the schedule a few months ago registered a high on the apprehension scale among the cricketing faithful. International cricket at the start of November? We did a collective impression of Sgt Wilson from Dad’s Army, asking “do you think that’s wise?”. The New Zealand climate is a capricious thing at the best of times, but give it international cricket to mess with and it becomes as flighty as a granny fed champagne for breakfast at Christmas.

For this reason, the tour has largely been kept out of the South Island, after the first T20 in Christchurch last Friday. (The third game is in Nelson, but that doesn’t count; it is on the same latitude as Wellington, but whereas the capital looks south, nothing between it and the penguins, Nelson is a north-facing suntrap, generating more vitamin D than is good for anybody). Of course, the weather has made fools of this protective scheduling. Unprecedented 30-degree temperatures swept the South Island today, and some of the North too. You have already guessed where the lowest maximum in New Zealand today was registered: the Kelburn weather station, which overlooks the Cake Tin. Mind you we would have settled for that 18 degrees if offered, and it was wise to play the game in the afternoon. I write in what would have been the mid-innings break and a swirling mist is enveloping the house as if it were captioned “London 1862”.

The two teams had an experimental feel about them. For New Zealand, Kane Williamson is missing the series because of a hip injury (but we all staying as calm as we can in the circumstances). Pleasingly, Trent Boult has made it a priority to play in the Plunket Shield rather than the first three of these games. England are also prioritising the tests. Root, Buttler, Archer, Stokes and Woakes are all missing the T20s but will be here for the tests later in the month, which is the right way round.

Joe Denly also misses the T20 series through injury. I hope that he is fit for the tests. If not, he may not get another chance, having been written off prematurely by some despite creditable performances in the Ashes series. Denly’s grandmother was kind to me as a lunchtime playground supervisor at Herne Bay Infant School in the sixties, so you will find nothing that isn’t positive about him in these columns.

England won the toss and put New Zealand in, which had worked a treat in their easy victory at Hagley Oval on Friday. Sam Curran, who has progressed from promising newcomer to senior bowler with only a scant intervening period, opened along with one of the two debutants, Saqib Mahmood of Lancashire, who, by way of welcome to international cricket, went for six twice in his first over, once by Guptill and once by Munro. The latter was lbw to Curran in the next over, after which Pat Brown of Worcestershire, playing his second international game, replaced Mahmood. He was also given a reminder that he had taken a big step up, with 15 coming from his first four deliveries. He should have had Seifert caught next ball, but Vince put down what looked a straightforward chance at backward point.

We last came across James Vince at Canterbury just over a month ago, looking I thought a bit doleful as he came out to bat having just learned that he had fallen well down the test pecking order. He would look back on that as a time of celebration compared to the nightmare day he had today. That was the first of three chances he put down. The second would have been the catch of the season and he did well to dive and get a hand to it as he ran from long on to long off. The third was on the mid-wicket boundary and looked as easy as the first. To be kind, both may have come to him straight out of the sun. A four-ball one rounded off his day. That will happen to anybody occasionally, even a player as good as Vince undoubtedly is. I hope he resisted the temptation to buy a Lotto ticket though; not today.

It wasn’t only Vince who had a bad day in the field. Billings couldn’t hold a high gloved chance from Guptill, Curran might have taken a hard one at backward square leg and Malan dropped the easiest of the lot in the last over. New Zealand missed nothing and that was the main difference today.

Colin De Grandhomme came in at No 4. One day he will stay there for the rest of the innings and put the game so far out of reach that it won’t be worth the other side coming out to bat. Today he made 28 from 12, giving those that followed a little time to breath.

I had just written a note that England’s bowling inexperience was showing when the Lewis Gregory, the other debutant, came on and took a wicket first ball. I had hoped that Somerset’s other representative, Tom Banton, would play today. I suspect that in twenty years’ time it would be something to say that you had seen his first international appearance.

Chris Jordan bowled magnificently, with a slower ball that is one of the best in the business. It is a reflection of England’s ODI strength that they could omit as fine a bowler from the World Cup squad. Sam Curran was also very good. Was the total of 176 for eight enough? Opinion was divided in the members’ lounge, “about par” a common phrase.

England began in the worst possible way as Jonny Bairstow dinked an easy catch to mid on off Southee. The ball may have held up a little, sending the stock of the home total up a few points. Vince’s unhappy day ended soon after, bringing Eoin Morgan in. There followed the most interesting passage of play in the game. New Zealand fed his strength square on the offside, placing, at one point, three backward points, sometimes polishing the apple of temptation by removing third man. Morgan responded by cutting over the top of them to the effect of 32 from 17 balls when he was out to Santner, whose strategy was more orthodox. Morgan was caught at long on by De Grandhomme, on almost the exact patch of turf on which Adam Milne dived to catch him in the World Cup game here four years ago. Then, it precipitated a collapse like an Antarctic ice shelf from global warming. Today the consequences were not as spectacular, but it was as significant a turning point.

Morgan was the first of five England batsmen to be caught on or near the Cake Tin’s long straight boundaries, a sequence that drove the English press contingent into social media apoplexy. Why aim for the long straight boundaries when the short square ones are available? Could they have been taking out the frustration of a late night watching the rugby? I thought Morgan’s post-match analysis to be more reasonable. He praised the New Zealand bowlers for forcing the England batsmen to hit straight, which they did better than the England bowlers. Why, after all, would a batsman hit to a long boundary if he could choose a short one?

In defence of the Cake Tin, though it is an oval, the square boundaries are not ridiculously short. It is a decent shape for a cricket field, which is why it is not so good for rugby and football’s rectangles, from which most spectators are at some distance.

The game seemed to be settled with the required rate nearing 12 an over after 13 overs. With four balls of his spell left, Ish Sodhi would have been pretty happy with two for 15. Jordan hit those four deliveries for a four followed by three sixes, to bring England right back into it. Two more boundaries followed before Jordan became the latest to hole out in the deep, for 36 from 19. A six from Gregory, who had a good debut, was the last of the resistance. The winning margin of 21 runs made it look a touch easier than it felt when first Morgan, then Jordan were hammering the bowling.

T20 is notoriously difficult to predict, but three-two would be a safe enough prediction as long as one isn’t tied down to who has three and who two.

This was an enjoyable game, and a good start to my international cricket watching (the game in Singapore not withstanding), which will see India in Wellington in 2020 and me in Sydney for the New Year test between Australia and New Zealand.

England A v Pakistan A, 50 overs, St Lawrence Ground, 24 July 2016

Scorecard

Two new spectating experiences came my way on my recent trip to the old country: floodlit cricket at Canterbury (of which more later) and an A international, England v Pakistan.

The game was part of a tri-series also involving Sri Lanka. This was the fifth and penultimate game; thus far England had won both their matches and Pakistan had defeated Sri Lanka twice.

It was a chance to see some of the young guns of English cricket: Ben Duckett, who is stacking up the runs for Northamptonshire; Brett D’Oliveira, the latest chapter of a marvellous story; and most of all the Curran brothers, infant prodigies with the ball.

It was another perfect day. My three weeks in Kent were blessed with weather reminiscent of 1976, the gold standard of English summers. A day to bat, one would have thought, but Pakistan put England in.

At 49 for four in the tenth over it looked a good decision. All four wickets fell to Bilawal Bhatti, a skiddy medium-fast right armer who CricInfo says is only five foot six, but perhaps the margin of error that applies to the measurement of the ages of Pakistan’s cricketers has been extended to their height. Bilawal maintained a superb line on and just outside off stump and induced errors from batsmen who were looking to force the pace early on a good pitch. Both Bell-Drummond and Duckett went driving at balls on this line. Bilawal was nowhere near the pace that his 30-yard run up suggested, but he was quick enough.

Bilawal was removed from the attack after seven overs, not to reappear until the end of the innings, when he was expensive against a rampant Billings. I ask my usual question: “what would McCullum have done?” “Used him as an attacking force earlier” is, of course, the answer.

Kent’s own Sam Billings came in second down and won the game with an innings that was among the best I have seen in one-day cricket: 175 from a tricky situation. He began with a shot that was a perfect imitation of that which Colin Cowdrey wished to execute as his “last act on Earth”—a drive down to the lime tree. I have always thought that impending mortality fogged Cowdrey’s mind a little as the tree (now a younger version, but in much the same place) is behind square, so it would be more of an outside edge, hardly a fitting way for such an elegant batsman to shuffle off this mortal coil. But Billings dispelled that misconception with a genuine drive to that very place.

It became clear that Billings has an astonishingly broad repertoire of shots, some of which Cowdrey would not have conceived of, let alone attempted. Neither the forward nor backward defensive are prominent among them. Billings has a McCullumesque belief in attack as the best course of action when backs are to the wall.

108 of his 175 came in boundaries, including four sixes. The prize for audacity of shot—fiercely contested—was won in the 49th over when Billings changed to a left-handed stance as the ball was released and pulled a six over what a second before had been cover. What will the next step be in the quest for surprise? The way Billings and co are going it might be the batsman producing a golf club at the moment of delivery, or the bowler finding that the ball has turned into a dove as he releases it. It was a treat to see Billings of Kent batting with such talent and skill on a rare international occasion at St Lawrence.

Billings put on 125 for the fifth wicket with Liam Livingstone of Lancashire. To say that Livingstone is partial to the onside is like saying that Winnie the Pooh enjoys the odd drop of honey. Both are good at finding what pleases them, but trouble sometimes results. Livingstone made deep incursions into the offside to make space for a legside biff, and did so with some success. He beat Billings to fifty, which not many do these days. Though he twice dispatched slow left-armer Mohammad Nawaz into the building site that occupies the northern side of the ground, the ball turning away from Livingstone caused him some difficulty and he must learn not to spurn half the field if he is to do take his talent to a higher level.

Eighty-nine came from the final ten overs, which was as good as Pakistan could have realistically hoped for. England finished on 324 for eight, a tall order but possible on a trustworthy pitch.

The Curran brothers opened the attack and both claimed an early wicket. I saw a lot of their late father Kevin in his Gloucestershire days. Only the qualification criteria prevented him from being an international cricketer. It looks as if both his boys will surpass him in this respect; they have his talent, and perhaps a touch more purpose.

Jaahid Ali and skipper Babar Azam put on 97 for the third wicket at a decent pace. Babar made a half-century the last time I saw him, at the Basin’s ODI earlier this year. Now he made another, just as composed.

The partnership was progressing well when, in the 20th over, Jaahid went down the pitch to slow left-armer Dawson only for the ball to pass the outside edge. Billings’ hands did not move and a straightforward stumping chance was missed. Jaahid was on 39 at the time, and went on to make a century. More than that, when he was out, in the 39th over, Pakistan were five down requiring a shade over nine an over. Had he stayed there for just a few more overs he might have won the game for Pakistan. Billings’ miss was closer to costing England the game—and negating his own brilliant innings—than the apparently comfortable 56-run margin of victory suggests.

It was good to see the Campaign for Real Ale flourishing still, its marquee bursting at every match I attended. What about a Campaign for Real Wicketkeepers? Billings’ international class as a batsman is obvious; his lack of it as a keeper equally so. He has this is common with all the other contenders including Bairstow and Buttler. All are capable of winning the game with the bat and losing it with the gloves. England’s profusion of all-rounders offers the selectors all sorts of options. One is to pick the best wicketkeeper in the country; it would win a test match soon enough.

Who is the best keeper in England? It would be interesting to hear the views of those who watch county cricket.

Only last year Mark Wood was first choice as the back up to Anderson and Broad for England. Injury has laid him low, but on the evidence of this performance he will be a strong contender again soon. Wood generates real pace from a short run up and bowls with intimidating intelligence. He ended Jaahid’s threatening innings and followed up with two more soon after to close out the game. Dawson also impressed, exercising control in mid-innings.

It was a treat for an occasional spectator to see so much young home talent in one place. Well done the ECB (and we don’t hear that very often) for offering Pakistan the chance to develop its second rank, a level that has always been a deficiency in that country’s game, even in more stable times. For all the grand talk about a global game, cricket’s talent is concentrated in just a few places. Preserving it where it already exists must be a priority over speculative expansion.