Lords

It was a really good test match, maybe even a Lords Classic?  We had a bit of everything, New Zealand will feel like they should have won it, that England did so was mostly down to our four genuinely great players.  How can we be so bad so often with Anderson, Broad, Root and Stokes available for selection?  It’s like the West Indies when most of the greats had retired and they relied on Ambrose, Chanderpaul, Lara and Walsh.  Perhaps we should look at New Zealand, Kane Williamson a great player with a hard working team of very good cricketers punching above their collective weight.

Apart from the fab four the rest of the England XI, Crawley and Lees had brief moments, Potts had an excellent debut and Foakes was almost perfect behind the stumps then held his nerve to support Root and secure the win, his innings shouldn’t be overlooked but will be forgotten when a scapegoat is required.  Parkinson looks interesting, he could be fun to watch in the future.  Bairstow was bowled twice which is almost as predictable as Root getting a hundred but he caught very well in she slips and Pope also did fuck all with the bat but managed a run out.  All round the fielding was much better and all the team will feel like they contributed so the only question will be ‘should Leach come back?’  The second test starts on Friday and England will have to improve because New Zealand certainly will.  Trent Bridge should suit both sets of bowlers so it will come down to which batting line up stands up best and that’s anyone’s guess.