England win the lottery to beat New Zealand on risible Lord’s pitch
England 140 & 226 beat New Zealand 113 & 138 (Atkinson 5-30) by 115 runs. England lead the series 1-0.
LORD’S — England needed less than a session on the fourth day to wrap up a morale-boosting victory in the first Test of the summer against New Zealand.
On a desperate pitch that made batting perilous for both teams, the tourists were dismissed for 138 chasing 254 to fall to a 115-run defeat ahead of next week’s second Test at The Oval.
Coming into this week, winning for England was non-negotiable following their horrendous Ashes winter and the stasis that led to the retention of coach Brendon McCullum and director of cricket Rob Key.
That the result came on a pitch that has been widely derided as one of the worst to be served up in this country for the past 20 years did make this Test a lottery.
Thankfully for Ben Stokes’ team, they ended up on the right side of the result despite being routed for 140 in their first innings having been asked to bat after losing the toss under leaden skies on Thursday morning.
It says much about the team’s character – something that was rightly brought into question over the winter – that they managed to fight their way back from there.
Some terrific backs-against-the-wall batting from debutant Emilio Gay and Harry Brook, who scored half-centuries in either innings, an inspired comeback with the ball from Ollie Robinson and New Zealand’s four dropped catches ultimately swung the balance of this game.
It says much about the surface that Jacob Bethell, Joe Root and Ben Stokes scored 41 runs between them across both innings. For New Zealand, that they were only able to bat for a combined 70.3 overs across the match does not reflect well either on their own efforts or the pitch.
In all, this Test match, England’s first for five months, lasted just 166 overs in total – less than two full days’ play and the shortest Lord’s Test since 1888 in terms of balls.
We can only hope for a better pitch come the second match of this three-Test series at The Oval, where a truer surface should give us a better idea about exactly where England are right now following the post-Ashes reset. There still feels a long way to go for this team to grow into a unit who can consistently beat elite opposition having failed to win all four Test series played against Australia and India during the Bazball era. This, though, is a start.
Two other areas of encouragement during this chaotic mess of a Test were the performances of Josh Tongue and Jamie Smith.
Tongue, whose 18 wickets during the Ashes marked him out as a genuinely elite fast bowler, stepped up again here, taking five wickets overall to leave himself on a total of 54 after just 10 Tests.
A big summer awaits the 28-year-old, whose ultimate goal will be to terrorise the Australians again when they reach these shores for next year’s Ashes.
Smith deserves credit, too, following his harrowing Ashes campaign.
After a shocking first-innings dismissal, when the wicketkeeper-batter was bowled shouldering arms to Kyle Jamieson, he started to show some fluency in the second. His 39 runs after England had collapsed to 127 for six on day two were crucial to the outcome of this contest.
Standing up to Robinson during New Zealand’s second innings – a tactic used by Australia’s Alex Carey to medium-pacers Scott Boland and Michael Neser last winter – showed his abilities with the gloves should not be underestimated as well.
In all, though, this is a contest that Lord’s and the tourists would rather forget.
An abbreviated third day, where just 9.4 overs were possible thanks to rain, had tipped this contest even more in England’s favour after Robinson’s dismissals of Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell in the space of four balls reduced New Zealand to 55 for five.
Needing another 199 to win, the likelihood the tourists would be able to overhaul their target on day four was infinitesimal.
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The only equation to ponder was how quickly England could wrap up victory.
Tongue needed just four minutes of the day to make the breakthrough, trapping Tom Blundell lbw as the Black Caps slipped to 58 for six.
A 53-run stand between Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips that reduced New Zealand’s required runs to 143 threatened to make things interesting.
But as soon as Conway edged Stokes, the captain bringing himself on for the first time this innings, to Bethell at gully, the game was up. Gus Atkinson, snaring Nathan Smith four balls later and then removing Jamieson soon after, left England one wicket away from victory. That came from Atkinson, who completed his fourth five-wicket haul at Lord’s in just three Tests when he bowled Matt Henry.
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