Day3: England facing defeat after more inept batting
The third day's play at Lord's dawned warm and clear as England and New
Zealand prepared to battle for supremacy; there was nothing to block the
sun apart from the occasional 'eclipse' caused by the NatWest hot-air
television balloon floating about overhead. The weather was generally to
remain fine, although more light clouds appeared as the day wore on.
Parore and Vettori took a while to settle down, although Parore gave rise
to hopes of a significant and positive innings when he put Headley away for
three twos in an over. But his innings never really developed, and when on
12 he played a poor back-foot stroke with an angled bat to drag the ball on
to his stumps off the inside edge. The total was at this stage 275 for
seven, with Vettori on 16.
Vettori was severe on Caddick's next over, with a couple of twos being
followed by a cut for four. Like Tudor at Edgbaston, he took his job as
night-watchman as an opportunity, and began to look more like the potential
all-rounder he appeared on his maiden tour for his country, to Zimbabwe
almost two years ago.
England at this time were without their captain, Hussain having been forced
to go to hospital for an X-ray on the middle finger of his right hand,
sustained while trying to field a fierce cut by Parore. The news was bad
for England: he had fractured the top joint, putting him out of the match
unless required to bat by necessity, and possibly out of all cricket for
the next three weeks, including the Old Trafford Test. Thorpe took over
the captaincy in his absence.
England felt certain they had dismissed Cairns without scoring, caught at
the wicket off the inside edge as he swung at Mullally. Cairns and umpire
Koertzen were unmoved, though, and the television replay gave no evidence
of a deflection. Vettori continued to play some good strokes, especially
off Caddick, driving him through the covers for another four, and then did
the same to Headley when he replaced the former New Zealander, bringing up
the 300 at the same time. Cairns struggled to get his innings under way,
finally recording his first boundary with a rare leg-glance off Mullally.
Vettori played a mature innings with some classical strokes at times, while
Cairns slowly gained in confidence, and with sensible batting they added 70
together for the eighth wicket. Caddick, after some inaccurate bowling
which proved expensive at times, finally got his man, hitting Cairns on the
pad with a ball that was going down the leg side, but rebounded via right
boot on to the off stump. Cairns made 31 off 42 balls with five fours, and
New Zealand were now 345 for eight, with Vettori on 49.
Vettori appeared rather nervous as he approached his third Test fifty, but
eventually decided on the bold approach by stepping down the pitch and
cracking him through extra cover to reach his fifty off 94 balls. New
Zealand went to lunch on 350 for nine, a lead of 164 runs, with Vettori on
53 and Nash on 1.
Vettori added only a single to his valuable innings after lunch, departing
when he slashed at Tufnell and the ball rebounded off the keeper's gloves
for Thorpe at slip to run back and complete the catch. He had made 54, and
the total at this stage was 351 for nine, with Nash on 1.
An inadvertent single off the edge to third man got Allott off the mark
The England bowlers did not seem to be causing the last two New Zealand
batsmen undue difficulties, but Nash and Allott were unable quite to double
the England score. Nash, after batting with discretion, finally decided to
slog Tufnell to the midwicket boundary, but the ball took the top edge of
his bat and skyed to backward point, where Mullally took the catch. He had
scored 6, while Allott was unbeaten with 1. 40 extras contributed to the
New Zealand total of 358, a lead of 172 over England.
It was a major test of character for England to go in again facing such a
deficit, especially with Hussain nursing a broken finger. If there are any
heroes among the English batsmen, this was the ideal time for them to stand
up and be counted. But it did not happen, just as long-suffering England
supporters have come to expect.
Allott bowled the opening over of England's second innings mainly outside
the off stump to Butcher. By the time the sixth ball came down, the
left-handed opener was tired of watching the world go by, and reached
across to drive him through the covers for a superb boundary. Stewart got
off the mark to general applause with a push into the covers for a quick
single off Cairns. Allott had a strong lbw appeal against Stewart rejected
in his second over, with a ball that straightened but was probably too high.
Ones and twos came regularly and there was some fine New Zealand fielding,
but the next boundary did not come until the sixth over, when Butcher cut
Cairns to third man. Stewart played some strokes of real class, especially
through the covers, and a cover drive off Allott brought him to 20, and
1000 runs in Tests against New Zealand, the fifth Englishman to reach that
total after Gooch, Cowdrey, Gower and Hammond. Generally, though, progress
was steady rather than spectacular, as could only be expected when facing
such a large deficit.
Butcher was comparatively subdued, and Nash was anguished when he brought a
ball back in his first over to have a close lbw appeal rejected by umpire
Kitchen, and then saw his next ball snicked through the slips for four. He
will receive little sympathy from many, though, who have been disgusted
with his 'sledging' of the England players during the match. He twice came
close to forcing Butcher to play on during his next over.
England's fifty came up with another cracking cover drive by Stewart off
Vettori, taking the total to 53, Butcher on 20 and Stewart 32. But, after
posting their fifty partnership the batsmen became subdued, no doubt with
the tea interval in their minds, but such a change in policy proved fatal.
In the last over before the break, Butcher's programming seemed to go awry,
as he aimed a fierce sweep at the accurate Vettori, but only succeeded in
getting a top edge. The ball skyed over the slips, from where Astle turned
and ran to take a good catch over his shoulder.
The players went off to tea with England on 55 for one, with Ramprakash due
to come in next in place of the injured Hussain. Stewart was still there
on 32, and his was the key wicket for New Zealand to take, as England were
still 117 runs behind.
Unfortunately for England, the final session was to prove little short of
disastrous, largely through an apparent absence of any practical policy or
direction in their batting. It took them more than ten minutes to score
their first run after tea, while Ramprakash looked most uncomfortable
before he finally dabbed Nash for two backward of point to open his score.
Stewart suddenly looked as if he had amnesia and was unable to remember
what a bat was used for. After 50 minutes, he had added just two runs to
his score at tea. Finally, desperate for a third, he pushed a ball into
the covers and called Ramprakash for a run that would have seen the latter
run out by a yard had there been a direct hit. Finally something snapped,
as it had with Butcher; he tried to sweep a straight ball from Vettori
right across the line and missed completely, to have his off stump knocked
back. He had made 35, the last three taking almost an hour, and England
were now 71 for two, still 101 behind and in need of a near miracle to
avoid defeat.
Thorpe sounded a note of defiance by pulling his second ball from Vettori
to the midwicket boundary; less wisely, he tried to do the same with the
third and missed. His fourth almost presented slip with a catch, and
earned him two runs. It seemed as if he had decided to go down with all
guns blazing - but without aiming them first. Sure enough, on reaching the
other end, he played too early at a ball pitched right up by Cairns and was
clean bowled. As an acting-captain's innings, it was a non-starter, to put
it kindly, playing right into the hands of the many who claim England lack
fighting spirit. England were 78 for three, with Thorpe out for 7 and
Ramprakash hanging on unconvincingly for 12.
Habib once again had to come in to bat with England in trouble, and his
first delivery virtually brought him to his knees, as he jabbed down on a
yorker Cairns pitched on his toes. He quickly responded with a
square-driven boundary. Ramprakash, turned around by a fine delivery from
Cairns, benefited from an edged four through the slips. Habib was nearly
bowled through the gate again as he fished at a ball from Nash without
moving his feet, only for it to come back and miss his off stump by the
narrowest of margins.
Ramprakash had not scored for some little while when Astle came on to bowl
him a wide ball well outside off stump; slashing at it, he snicked a catch
straight to the keeper. He made 24; England were 97 for four, still 75
behind, and this was another nail in their coffin. Headley came in as
night-watchman, with Habib still there on 5.
Habib finally brought up the hundred for England with a well-struck drive
to the extra-cover boundary off Nash. But runs were few and far between;
it seemed England had no policy between self-defeating defence, such as
practised by Stewart after tea and Ramprakash for most of his innings, and
suicidal hitting as displayed by Thorpe.
Habib, on 11, had a fortunate escape as he played forward to Vettori and
umpire Koertzen rejected an appeal for a catch at the wicket; the replay
showed that he had in fact clearly hit the ball. This was the last real
action of the day, as a helplessly defensive England finished the day on
107 for four off 54 overs, still 65 runs behind and with Hussain injured;
Habib was on 11 and Headley 2. English batsmanship has given one of its
most inept displays in this match. New Zealand bowled accurately at times,
even challengingly, but the overwhelming memory is of England's hapless
batting.
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Day4: New Zealand win at Lord's for the first time
It was another sunny morning at Lord's, but the likelihood was that England would capitulate to New Zealand probably before rather than after the halfway stage of the day, unless they could find some extra and
unexpected spirit from somewhere. In fact they did survive for longer than expected, thanks to some fighting batting from their lower middle order batsmen Read and Caddick, but New Zealand were still able to
progress to a well-deserved if rather colourless victory.
England began the day slowly, with the overnight batsmen Habib and Headley intent mainly on survival, and only seven runs came in the first half-hour.
The first truly aggressive stroke of the day came when Habib suddenly seemed to come alive by stepping forward to drive Vettori for four through extra cover. Allott replaced Nash at the pavilion end and broke through with his final ball, as Headley snicked a low catch straight to Fleming at first slip. He had made 12, and England were 123 for five - effectively
six, as it was announced that Hussain would not be able to bat. Habib at the other end was still there with 17, and England still needed 49 more to
avoid an innings defeat.
Habib's third innings of the match, so to speak, came to an end when he dabbed a ball from Allott straight into the hands of Astle at second slip.
He lasted 106 balls and scarcely looked convincing in his third and highest Test innings, even ignoring his undeserved escape from being given out caught at the wicket the previous evening. He had scored 19, and
England were now 127 for six, and apparently sliding steadily towards an innings defeat.
Read and Caddick then dug in, and for quite a while the overall England scoring rate dipped below two runs an over. Once Caddick cut Allott for four, though, to take the partnership into double figures, they began to
look more confident. In the next over he drove Vettori off the back foot to the cover boundary; a bottom edge along the ground between the keeper
and first slip to the boundary was not of the same quality, but it all counted.
The crowd applauded enthusiastically as Caddick turned Vettori towards long leg for two to bring up England's 150. Then New Zealand took the second new ball as soon as it became available, with Nash and Cairns
operating. Read greeted it with a fine back-foot drive to the extra-cover boundary, and then hooked the next ball for four to deep square leg, exciting a section of the crowd so much that they started singing.
Further runs off the over, which cost 11 altogether, took the England scoring rate back almost to two runs an over and, at 161 for six, they needed only a further 11 to avoid the innings defeat.
Read drove Cairns straight for four, and every run was now cheered as it brought England closer to wiping out the deficit. Four more came as Caddick slashed Nash to the third-man boundary, narrowly beating two
fielders, and the vital run came in the next over as Read drove Cairns wide of mid-on for a single. The pair had added 48 together by the time the teams trooped off for lunch; the total was now 175 for six off 85 overs, with both batsmen on 24.
After lunch the gallant pair extended their partnership to 78, with some more determined and aggressive batting, before New Zealand achieved a
fortuitous breakthrough. Nash bowled a good ball that cut back in to Read, but it also kept inexcusably low, hitting him barely above boot level and leaving him with little chance; he was clearly but unluckily lbw
for a very worthy 37. England were now 205 for seven, Caddick on 36, but with Hussain reported unfit to bat and only Mullally and Tufnell to come, further heroics were unlikely.
Mullally surprised everybody and excited his fan club in the crowd by getting off the mark with a poke through point for a single. He then showed that he can still score runs, if only on his day, by driving back down the pitch and almost decapitating the ducking Nash as the ball travelled to the pavilion rails. His next effort was a more typical fresh-air swipe outside off stump. At the other end he reached double figures by swinging Cairns to the long-leg boundary, but then immediately drove a catch to mid-off Twose. He was out for 10 off 13 balls; the total
was 216 for eight, with Caddick on 37.
Tufnell enjoyed his usual enthusiastic reception from the crowd and even scored a few runs, although he had a couple of fortunate escapes. He edged a ball from Nash to second slip Astle which was caught very low down - so low, in fact, that the umpires were apparently unable to conclude whether it had carried, even with a television replay, and so ruled not out. Nash, fired up, gave Tufnell a hard time that over but failed to dismiss him - even with the last ball, which was again edged to Astle but dropped.
The end was not long in coming, though, as Caddick played a half-hearted stroke at Allott with a diagonal bat and was easily caught at first slip, a disappointingly 'soft' dismissal after a fine fighting innings of 45. England were all out for 229, with Hussain unable to bat, leaving New Zealand with just 58 runs for victory. Tufnell was left not out with 5.
New Zealand opened their second innings, with 58 needed for victory, with a rather uncharacteristic on-drive by Horne, played to a ball pitched outside off stump; a snick to third man for another three brought six off Mullally's opening over. Caddick bowled a fine opening over to put Bell under pressure, but Mullally was again a little erratic, conceding a four
to Horne through midwicket. Otherwise New Zealand played safely through to the tea interval, when the score was 15 without loss after six overs, with Horne on 11 and Bell on 4.
Tufnell was brought on at the nursery end after the interval, extracting some spin, but it was clearly, like anything else England might try, a token gesture at this stage of the match. He forced the batsmen to play warily, while at the other end Horne turned Mullally neatly to the square-leg boundary. Caddick soon replaced Mullally at the pavilion end, and as runs came slowly he moved a ball back in to hit Horne on the pad and win an lbw decision from umpire Kitchen. Horne had made 26 out of 37 for one, with Bell still on 10.
Fleming took a long time to get off the mark, before driving Tufnell for two, and New Zealand seemed quite content to push their way to victory, with no extravagances from a far from extravagant team. Their fifty came up in the 22nd over as Bell paddled Tufnell to long leg for two, but then he showed more aggression by driving wide on mid-on for a slightly
mistimed three.
Facing Caddick, Bell had a narrow escape from being run out as Headley reacted sharply at short leg, but by then only another four runs were required. Finally Bell tucked Caddick away to the midwicket boundary to
give New Zealand a well-deserved victory by eight wickets. The final total was 60 for one, with Bell on 26 and Fleming 5.
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