England's Summer of Cricket 2021

First topic message reminder :

2nd June-14th June: Two tests v New Zealand

23rd June-26th June: Three T20s v Sri Lanka
29th June-4th July: Three ODIs v Sri Lanka

8th July-13th July: Three ODIs v Pakistan
16th July-20th July: Three T20s V Pakistan

4th August-14th September: Five Tests v India

Robinson rewarded for his relentless attack on the stumps : pins Taylor in front ...top work

At last Taylor goes. Lovely ball from Robinson and a good hour for England.

114/3...right in the balance, with some quality Kiwi batters to come. They bat deep as well with Wagner at 11.

Robinson with another. That looked absolutely plumb in real time. Taylor doesn't review as well. He'd looked really out of touch since arriving at the crease.

Ross Taylor is an odd player, can go from looking sublime one innings and then in the next doesn't look good enough for test cricket.

Perhaps slightly surprising that in such seemingly good batting conditions we have seen two players bowled - played on - and one lbw.
Game nicely poised now. Fair bit of batting depth in this Kiwi outfit so England will need to keep the pressure on in this session. Would love another one now...but I think this is a waste of a review. Surely pitched outside leg ?

Yes. Poor choice.

Did England forget the batsman in question was a left-hander?

Duty281 wrote:Did England forget the batsman in question was a left-hander?

Dire review that. I was worried they were about to throw another one away shortly after!

Robinson upsetting the umpire by trespassing on the danger area from round the wicket...in truth he's looked happier bowling to the right handers , although he did do for Latham.

Root on. Was either that or a lot of overtime given it is 35 minutes to tea and only 42 overs bowled.

Time for Root...probably to catch-up with the over-rate more than any other factor. I feel New Zealand can really cash in on this with some gentle milking.

Slow session. Just 27 overs bowled even with Root bowling a less than menacing spell ; and 59 runs added for two scalps. NZ content to grind : they'll be the happier team over tea , I think.

Yeah, New Zealand will be marginally happier, I reckon. Of course a couple of quick wickets puts England in command, but they were flat in the field for that second hour of the afternoon, and now the ball's very soft, no swing, and fatigue will start to be felt by the English seamers. Nicholls and Conway have been biding their time; they'll start to take the attack to England after the resumption, especially with Root/Lawrence likely to have quite a few overs this evening.

Broad's bowled well without reward thus far.

Pretty even so far I'd say, maybe NZ marginally the happier of the two...but England have kept a lid on things well, if they can nip another couple out before the 2nd new ball and keep the run rate in check, they'll be well in this

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Pretty even so far I'd say, maybe NZ marginally the happier of the two...but England have kept a lid on things well, if they can nip another couple out before the 2nd new ball and keep the run rate in check, they'll be well in this

Well that's true. But it's a big IF : haven't really looked like taking a wicket for some time and you'd think they're sweating on batsman error at the moment rather than expecting to rip through the order.
They've kept the run rate down commendably so far but , as Duty says , the part timers might prove easy meat later on.
Will they even get a new ball tonight ? Touch and go at the rate they're bowling their overs...

Solid knock this from Conway , justifying his call up

Nearly a masterstroke from Root inserting Crawley at leg-slip, but he wasn't fine enough.

Initial burst from Anderson/Robertson not yielded anything, now these two are set and primed to push the score on with two hours left.

Duty281 wrote:Nearly a masterstroke from Root inserting Crawley at leg-slip, but he wasn't fine enough.

Initial burst from Anderson/Robertson not yielded anything, now these two are set and primed to push the score on with two hours left.

Yes was encouraging to see Root being creative there , even if it didn't quite produce the result. Going to need some tricks to get twenty wickets on this .

I'm sure there will be a lot of comments along the lines of "why no Leach ?" ; but I am not sure he'd be making a lot of difference today. He doesn't have a spectacular first innings record , particularly outside Asia. Looks like a good toss to have won.

Conway deserves a ton. 96 now ...97....

Ton up for Conway, on debut, at Lord's, in a spritely 163 balls, brought up with a six.

Hundred for Conway

Excellent start to his career. Chanceless ; couple of anxious moments against Wood but otherwise in command. Nice ground to do it on too.

185/3 and England are getting stretched a bit now...

That's an excellent hundred from Conway, especially on debut. He got off to a quick start in the morning, then fought through the afternoon session well before just starting to go up through the gears again.

It shows the strength in the NZ Test side at the moment that they can leave out an opener in Blundell that's been doing perfectly well and bring in a batsman of Conway's ability.

England need a breakthrough. 19 overs to the second new ball is plenty of time for NZ to turn this into a dominant position.

The short ball attack from Wood was worth a try ; but I'm glad they've abandoned it now. No sense in working the fast man into the ground , as Conway has played the short stuff increasingly better in this session.
Still 18 overs to the new ball so not surprised to see Root back. Wonder if he can conjure up some magic...or maybe tempt a rash stroke. Could really do with a breakthrough, else it's likely to be 250 plus when the new ball comes and a big total looming...

I don't think Leach would have been a great wicket-taking option on the first day, but he would offer greater control which is vital when in the field for an extended spell. He could have tied down one end while allowing the seamers to rotate at the other. Root or Lawrence can't do that to the same extent.

I feel you should almost always have one specialist spinner in your line-up, unless it's a green-top backed up with murky weather conditions.

Incidentally, England's over-rate has been a disgrace today - currently bowled 64 overs in around 5 hours, they should have bowled 75overs by now. I hope the ICC take some measures.

I really don't think Leach is the bowler to keep things tight on day one though, which is part of England's issue. For all of Dom Bess's inconsistency he has a slightly better economy than Leach in Tests.

Leach's record in FC and Test cricket shows he's very good at taking wickets on turning tracks, he's good in the second innings and good against right-handers. His record in the first innings, on unhelpful tracks and to left-handers (who have done the damage thus far today) is pretty poor. That's poor compared to other spinners as well, as I'm aware spinners all do better on turning tracks and in the second innings, most do better turning it away from the batsman. Leach is a good bowler but does have red flags in his record that suggest he's a bowler best used in specific conditions.

England just lack that front line spinner who can do a job when it isn't turning and bowl sides out when it is.

England's over rate has been a joke for a while. In India it was farcical given the overs were mainly coming from spin as well.

England's exhausted looking bowlers taking the new ball for one final push today.

231/3. One more needed, minimum.

Nope, no joy, though the bat was beaten a few times.

Comfortably NZ's day. Well placed to push on to 400+, maybe 500+, and heap the pressure on a (mostly) inexperienced England batting line-up.

Well done to Conway, who's registered the highest score of any debutant at Lord's (first or second innings), and he's been ably supported by Nicholls for the last few hours.

Don't think England's frontline bowlers have done badly, though Wood was somewhat errant. It's mainly just been a flat deck and a great toss for Williamson to win.

''Because New Zealand haven't scored quickly, there is a chance England can come back tomorrow. New Zealand still have some work to do, but which shed would you rather be in tonight? New Zealand's, I think.'' - Jeremy Coney.

Can't argue with that.

Robinson getting mired in some controversy for some juvenile tweets he wrote about 9 years ago. Suspect we might see more of this from folk - sportspeople and politicians - who grew up using social media as time goes on.

Duty281 wrote:Nope, no joy, though the bat was beaten a few times.

Comfortably NZ's day. Well placed to push on to 400+, maybe 500+, and heap the pressure on a (mostly) inexperienced England batting line-up.

Well done to Conway, who's registered the highest score of any debutant at Lord's (first or second innings), and he's been ably supported by Nicholls for the last few hours.

Don't think England's frontline bowlers have done badly, though Wood was somewhat errant. It's mainly just been a flat deck and a great toss for Williamson to win.

Agree with your summary Duty, albeit a few early wickets with the new ball tomorrow and England could hope to keep it more towards 400.
Wood’s record in England continues to be poor. Cant say Leach would’ve offered much different to what Root did today as Carlos detailed above, just not a lot in the pitch.

Conway was superb - NZ seem to have unearthed a gem. Nicholls ain’t half sleep inducing to watch though

Duty281 wrote:Robinson getting mired in some controversy for some juvenile tweets he wrote about 9 years ago. Suspect we might see more of this from folk - sportspeople and politicians - who grew up using social media as time goes on.

I've some sympathy for Robinson. He's turned his cricket career around since being sacked by Yorkshire for disciplinary reasons in 2014. I would rather give him some credit for that than immediately looking to judge him on what he was up to years ago. The person I would judge is whoever has disclosed those tweets today so as to cause maximum trouble and embarrassment - thoroughly unpleasant and that's the polite version.

Robinson was certainly naive and probably stupid though in how he used social media. Can't get away from that. As Duty suggests, he's unlikely to be the last we see in that category.

On Ollie Robinson's tweets
In my view he should be judged less harshly
He was 18-19 years old then and twitter was a relatively new phenomenon
At that age in general there is much less maturity of what's politically and socially correct¨
and btw definitions of correctness have changed in the last  decade drastically

And also there is understanding now, that didn't exist a decade back that many casual things one would say in closed doors ain't meant to be put on twitter

On the Game itself, I did not watch much but following on CI it  seems to be going firmly in the grasp of NZ
Eng has selected a Dhoni type defensive team....with just 4 bowlers..most of whom are medium pace  and packed with batters
Test matches are won by taking 20 wickets

That Anderson did not do material damage with either of the new balls has left Eng with only hoping to bat big and earn a draw as their best case

I have money at 2.7 times return on Devon crossing 170 so I hope he gets another 35 runs

Two points;

Firstly Ollie Robinson posting some stupid things as a teenager are irrelevant today, it's indicative of the nonsense woke culture that such things are dredged up as if they matter. The person doing that is scum.

Secondly a seam attack of Robinson, Anderson, Broad and Wood is not a defensive selection.

Confess I didn't see it through to the end...and a little surprised having retired at 210 or so after about 70 overs that NZ didn't finish with a few more on the board. Guess they settled for keeping wickets intact for day two.
The slow scoring means England have a (small) window of opportunity to grab early wickets with a still new ball and get back into the match. But if they don't manage to do so they could be in for a world of pain with the ageing pace men already 20 overs down and a bit of batting to come...
I am not one to call "draw" after one day ; but I think it will take some incisive bowling - or very poor batting - for either side to get twenty wickets on this , unless conditions change markedly. Guess we will know more after day two. Somehow think NZ might be better served by pushing on a bit and getting at England with a bit of time left in the day rather than batting them right out of it with a mammoth total : but that is getting well ahead of ourselves.
As for Ollie Robinson's teenage stupidity : why on earth does anyone want to dredge that rubbish up now ? Just malicious stuff from someone with nothing better to do I suppose? From all accounts he might have been a bit of a prat in his younger days but surely should be allowed to live and learn like all of us and be judged on his behaviour now. Hopefully won't be blown up too much in the media. He bowled quite well early on : will be interesting to see how he goes as the match wears on.

Apologies everyone for not getting my act together for a tipping competition. Absolutely kicking myself! I knew this match started in early June but time simply moved too quickly for me. Got a text from Mum practically as the first ball was coming down... too late.

Dabbling with the idea of doing a combined 2nd Test* / WTC comp; then a separate England-India one. Would you be interested in that? I'll be ready to go early next week ready for next Thursday.

Saw a little bit of Day 1. Nice effort from Conway to bat through the day. Have a feeling Nicholls might try and up the anti after he's settled in again this morning... and if he doesn't get out.

Only saw glimpses of Robinson bowling - he must have felt on top of the world after his first two wickets on debut. Didn't hear of the tw*tter controversy until this morning here. Silly thing to do back in 2014 perhaps but whoever leaked it obviously bears a personal grudge and had a calculated plan to rekindle those tweets on Day 1. Shameful and reprehensible behaviour.

* I'll post a thread up on the board soon. (just thinking of ways we could salvage some points from this Test in some abbreviated competition... any thoughts welcome. Post them on the upcoming Competition thread)

On the Robinson tweet thing, clearly those tweets were not good at best, so he has rightly apologised for them, and has seemingly learnt/grown up a lot since then, which is fair play.
But, it really isn't a difficult thing for these things to be found, it's literally like a 20 second twitter search from someone...and when you start in test cricket, you're suddenly open to thousands/millions more people and users, where ultimately one or two are going to do this sort of thing...might not be the worst thing for players/social media managers to get out ahead of this in the future.
Probably also in light of the Azeem Rafiq stuff, and the fact Robinson was brought up and at Yorkshire at the time, more indicative of the culture they're young cricketers are brought up in (which is a whole other topic!).

Would definitely be in for a tipping comp Joey

alfie wrote:Confess I didn't see it through to the end...and a little surprised having retired at 210 or so after about 70 overs that NZ didn't finish with a few more on the board. Guess they settled for keeping wickets intact for day two.
The slow scoring means England have a (small) window of opportunity to grab early wickets with a still new ball and get back into the match. But if they don't manage to do so they could be in for a world of pain with the ageing pace men already 20 overs down and a bit of batting to come...
I am not one to call "draw" after one day ; but I think it will take some incisive bowling - or very poor batting - for either side to get twenty wickets on this , unless conditions change markedly. Guess we will know more after day two. Somehow think NZ might be better served by pushing on a bit and getting at England with a bit of time left in the day rather than batting them right out of it with a mammoth total : but that is getting well ahead of ourselves.
As for Ollie Robinson's teenage stupidity : why on earth does anyone want to dredge that rubbish up now ? Just malicious stuff from someone with nothing better to do I suppose?  From all accounts he might have been a bit of a prat in his younger days but surely should be allowed to live and learn like all of us and be judged on his behaviour now. Hopefully won't be blown up too much in the media.  He bowled quite well early on : will be interesting to see how he goes as the match wears on.

I've no idea where to look [Duty, JDizzle, Olly - you're always good at this sort of thing] but I would be interested in knowing the percentage of 5 day Tests that end in draws nowadays compared to past years. Maybe a comparison of decades.

My gut feeling is that it's far less today than in the past. Assuming that's correct, it's strange in some ways. Uncovered pitches in earlier years considerably aided the bowlers in taking 20 wickets and wrapping up a win. There again, with less concentration upon (or even nil) limited overs cricket, batsmen set out with a main aim of not getting out.

I understand where you are coming from in this Test, Alfie, in flagging the possibility of a draw. However, as you more strongly acknowledge, it's just too early to call. I'm a great believer in scoreboard pressure and the impact it can have regardless of the conditions and the apparent quality of the opposition batsmen. If New Zealand hit north of 450, we'll have a hard and anxious time batting tonight and tomorrow. Still a long way for them to go though to reach that.

One factor favouring a positive result in this one is that we shouldn't lose time to the weather. Not today anyway. Looks like a scorcher!

Pal Joey wrote:Apologies everyone for not getting my act together for a tipping competition. Absolutely kicking myself! I knew this match started in early June but time simply moved too quickly for me. Got a text from Mum practically as the first ball was coming down... too late.

Dabbling with the idea of doing a combined 2nd Test* / WTC comp; then a separate England-India one. Would you be interested in that? I'll be ready to go early next week ready for next Thursday.

Saw a little bit of Day 1. Nice effort from Conway to bat through the day. Have a feeling Nicholls might try and up the anti after he's settled in again this morning... and if he doesn't get out.

Only saw glimpses of Robinson bowling - he must have felt on top of the world after his first two wickets on debut. Didn't hear of the tw*tter controversy until this morning here. Silly thing to do back in 2014 perhaps but whoever leaked it obviously bears a personal grudge and had a calculated plan to rekindle those tweets on Day 1. Shameful and reprehensible behaviour.

* I'll post a thread up on the board soon. (just thinking of ways we could salvage some points from this Test in some abbreviated competition... any thoughts welcome. Post them on the upcoming Competition thread)

I suspect KP-f will want the comp backdated to day 1 of this Test with him having been the only one to go for Conway!

guildfordbat wrote:

alfie wrote:Confess I didn't see it through to the end...and a little surprised having retired at 210 or so after about 70 overs that NZ didn't finish with a few more on the board. Guess they settled for keeping wickets intact for day two.
The slow scoring means England have a (small) window of opportunity to grab early wickets with a still new ball and get back into the match. But if they don't manage to do so they could be in for a world of pain with the ageing pace men already 20 overs down and a bit of batting to come...
I am not one to call "draw" after one day ; but I think it will take some incisive bowling - or very poor batting - for either side to get twenty wickets on this , unless conditions change markedly. Guess we will know more after day two. Somehow think NZ might be better served by pushing on a bit and getting at England with a bit of time left in the day rather than batting them right out of it with a mammoth total : but that is getting well ahead of ourselves.
As for Ollie Robinson's teenage stupidity : why on earth does anyone want to dredge that rubbish up now ? Just malicious stuff from someone with nothing better to do I suppose?  From all accounts he might have been a bit of a prat in his younger days but surely should be allowed to live and learn like all of us and be judged on his behaviour now. Hopefully won't be blown up too much in the media.  He bowled quite well early on : will be interesting to see how he goes as the match wears on.

I've no idea where to look [Duty, JDizzle, Olly - you're always good at this sort of thing] but I would be interested in knowing the percentage of 5 day Tests that end in draws nowadays compared to past years. Maybe a comparison of decades.

My gut feeling is that it's far less today than in the past. Assuming that's correct, it's strange in some ways. Uncovered pitches in earlier years considerably aided the bowlers in taking 20 wickets and wrapping up a win. There again, with less concentration upon (or even nil) limited overs cricket, batsmen set out with a main aim of not getting out.

I understand where you are coming from in this Test, Alfie, in flagging the possibility of a draw. However, as you more strongly acknowledge, it's just too early to call. I'm a great believer in scoreboard pressure and the impact it can have regardless of the conditions and the apparent quality of the opposition batsmen. If New Zealand hit north of 450, we'll have a hard and anxious time batting tonight and tomorrow. Still a long way for them to go though to reach that.

One factor favouring a positive result in this one is that we shouldn't lose time to the weather. Not today anyway. Looks like a scorcher!

Unsure about full decades - it would take longer! - but if you were to look at years in isolation, you can see the number of draws is in decline.

2019 - 39 tests, 4 draws
2009 - 41 tests, 15 draws
1999 - 43 tests, 14 draws

Probably down to better drainage and better scoring rates...it certainly isn't down to quicker over rates!

Only six batsmen have scored a double century on test debut, including Kyle Mayers who led the West Indies to that implausible target over Bangladesh earlier in the year, and Kiwi Mat Sinclair in '99.

Conway might be joining them after this start to day two.

Do understand Alfie's draw shout - there is nothing in the pitch for the seamers (at best there might be some variable bounce come day 4/5), and no spin as of yet (and even if there is NZ's main spinner has a test career bowling average of 44, and has never taken more than 3 wickets in a test innings, never more than 4 in a first class innings - so hardly coming up against Ashwin/Jadeja here).

Long way to go yet of course, and England's batting lineup sans Stokes/Buttler is definitely weaker than usual too.

NZ off to a quick start here, Anderson bowled a few bad deliveries. Might get Robinson on fairly sharp

Duty281 wrote:
...

Unsure about full decades - it would take longer! - but if you were to look at years in isolation, you can see the number of draws is in decline.

2019 - 39 tests, 4 draws
2009 - 41 tests, 15 draws
1999 - 43 tests, 14 draws

Probably down to better drainage and better scoring rates...it certainly isn't down to quicker over rates!

Thanks, Duty. That backs up what I thought.

Drainage is definitely a factor. Excellent today at the Oval. Compare that with the last day of the final Ashes Test there in 1968. Then, families were laying picnic rugs down on the outfield whilst old ladies were putting knitting needles into the turf to dry the surface out and get play underway!

Totally agree with you about over rates. Utterly shameful. My main sympathy is always with the paying spectator at the ground. Even for an ordinary ticket, you're paying around one quid for each of the 96 overs expected. No good reason why you shouldn't get full money's worth on a day like yesterday.

guildfordbat wrote:

Pal Joey wrote:
* I'll post a thread up on the board soon. (just thinking of ways we could salvage some points from this Test in some abbreviated competition... any thoughts welcome. Post them on the upcoming Competition thread)

I suspect KP-f will want the comp backdated to day 1 of this Test with him having been the only one to go for Conway!

Just KP_Fan and me so far, Guildford. Like the gunfight at the OK Corral....

The fresh new spreadsheet is ready to fill in with names.

https://www.606v2.com/t70218-2021-england-v-nz-world-test-championship-final-tipping-competition#3976959

Should have put restrictions/penalties on Nicholls - he's looking the goods. (jinx immunity requested)

Indeed modern teams don't seem to "do" draws , except in cases of sustained bad weather. I'm certainly not underestimating the capacity of England to collapse in response to a large opposing score , even on a benign surface

But it's already looking a tall order for the home team to get a shot at winning this one. NZ untroubled so far this morning and it's hard to see them getting much less than 450 from here - and eating up a lot of time. Silverwood and Root allegedly want some flat pitches to enable their players to get experience on them : seem to have their wish this week. Let us hope some of the batsmen take advantage ... when they eventually get their turn.

king_carlos wrote:I really don't think Leach is the bowler to keep things tight on day one though, which is part of England's issue. For all of Dom Bess's inconsistency he has a slightly better economy than Leach in Tests.

Leach's record in FC and Test cricket shows he's very good at taking wickets on turning tracks, he's good in the second innings and good against right-handers. His record in the first innings, on unhelpful tracks and to left-handers (who have done the damage thus far today) is pretty poor. That's poor compared to other spinners as well, as I'm aware spinners all do better on turning tracks and in the second innings, most do better turning it away from the batsman. Leach is a good bowler but does have red flags in his record that suggest he's a bowler best used in specific conditions.

England just lack that front line spinner who can do a job when it isn't turning and bowl sides out when it is.

England's over rate has been a joke for a while. In India it was farcical given the overs were mainly coming from spin as well.

Carlos, did some digging into the averages in Leach’s shortish test career so far by innings and batsman type, to see if your point was backed up by the stats...and fair to say it is. (Obviously this is still a relatively small sample size).

1st/2nd innings of the game
vs RHBs: 19 @ 35.78
vs LHBs: 3 @ 112.66

3rd/4th innings of the game
vs RHBs: 32 @ 17.40
vs LHBs: 8 at 34.75

The pitch is dead and the bowling unit as a whole haven't been good enough but we are yet again seeing the folly of continually selecting Mark Wood in England, he simply is not good enough on pitches that aren't conducive to sheer pace. It reeks to me of looking forward to the ashes rather than concentrating on winning the match in front of them, hope to see Olly Stone next week.

Yep, 450 should be a minimum from here, though likely to see closer to 550. Softening ball, demoralised and tired fielders, flat pitch, only part-timers to ease the workload of the weary seamers, and a pretty warm day.

No player has made a treble ton on test debut (unsurprisingly)...may never see a better chance to change that than today.

Goodness me, a wicket! Nicholls loses control against a good short ball from Wood.

Well done Soul

Spurred Wood into breaking the stand at last...

Nicholls gone for an excellent 61

288/4. Needed that !

Soul Requiem wrote:The pitch is dead and the bowling unit as a whole haven't been good enough but we are yet again seeing the folly of continually selecting Mark Wood in England, he simply is not good enough on pitches that aren't conducive to sheer pace. It reeks to me of looking forward to the ashes rather than concentrating on winning the match in front of them, hope to see Olly Stone next week.

You can all thank me now, knew he had it in him.

I'll also add and most probably in a minority of one here but there is something very wrong with international sport when you can qualify for a country you had no prior links to just by living there for three years.

On Wood , and his contrasting figures in England (bad!) and overseas (pretty good) :

In fairness to him , the sample size is not that big. And he has been rather in and out of the team for one reason or another : it is possible the figures are skewed somewhat by his misfortune in being selected for the "wrong" games - the flatter pitches , the in form opponents , at times when he was perhaps not at his best (not claiming to have done a study in detail of the games : might do so when I have spare time) More that I am thinking I've actually seen him bowl some good spells , albeit perhaps without quite the results he'd have liked.

The figures are indeed quite dramatically different ; but does it not seem a little counterintuitive to suggest that a man who can achieve good results in Sri Lanka is useless anywhere in England ? I'm prepared to give him a chance when it suits the team - which it often doesn't , given the number of options around .

Fine with seeing what Stone can do , by the way. Though having three players called Olly in the team at once seems rather excessive

Fantastic ball from Wood. That's plenty better for England, 292/5.

Thankfully we don't have to put up with watching BJ Watling bat again

Soul, fancy saying Sibley/Burns/Crawley/Root/Pope/Lawrence are all crap as well?