NZ tour of England 2021.

[bigfluffylemon]

Bracey half way to an international audi.

Another single score in the second dig, and this might be a very brief international carewr

Geez, who'd have thought we'd be begging for Buttler or Bairstow back?

[bigfluffylemon]

Blundell in for Watling.
Young/Williamson
Mitchell/Grandhomme
Patel/Santner
Boult/Southee
Henry/Wagner

Wow.

Shows NZ are focussed (quite reasonably) on the test championship final that starts 3 days after this match finishes. Give the whole squad a warm-up, don't risk anyone who had a tough workload or might be injured, so you can have a fit and firing squad for the final. Treating this as a warm-up series, but given the England XI they are facing, why not?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Yes, it looks that way. A bit sad when series are used as prep, but England do it too.

[bigfluffylemon]

Congrats to Anderson on breaking the England cap record, and the only bowler to feature in the top 10 all-time cap record list.

Sachin's 200 is a record that may never be broken, but it seems likely that barring catastrophic loss of form, Jimmy will be in second place by the time he retires - he's six tests behind Ponting in number 2.

This was a bit of fun how many of Anderson's 96 team mates from his 162 tests can you remember? I got 69 out of 96. Only one or two forehead slapping misses, I got all but one down to those who'd played six tests or more, but missed a lot of the 5 test or less crowd, including several of the revolving door of openers, and a lot of 1 or 2 test wonders. I think it's not unreasonable to have forgotten them, after all, they were dropped because they had little impact in the games they played...
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/56972045

I wonder how many players have played alongside more? It's a bit hard to interrogate the stats database to ask that question. I managed to get that apparently Sachin had 110 team mates in his test playing career, and Ponting 86, but I couldn't find a way to interrogate the database about that question without running the query for each candidate for the record individually. Smart money says Sachin's 110 is probably the record...

[Durhamfootman]

Bracey half way to an international audi.

Another single score in the second dig, and this might be a very brief international carewr

Geez, who'd have thought we'd be begging for Buttler or Bairstow back?

I'm not, but Foakes would be nice

Hard to think that Bracey's next innings won't be make or break in an England shirt...... so no pressure, then

[sussexpob]

Congrats to Anderson on breaking the England cap record, and the only bowler to feature in the top 10 all-time cap record list.

Sachin's 200 is a record that may never be broken, but it seems likely that barring catastrophic loss of form, Jimmy will be in second place by the time he retires - he's six tests behind Ponting in number 2.

This was a bit of fun how many of Anderson's 96 team mates from his 162 tests can you remember? I got 69 out of 96. Only one or two forehead slapping misses, I got all but one down to those who'd played six tests or more, but missed a lot of the 5 test or less crowd, including several of the revolving door of openers, and a lot of 1 or 2 test wonders. I think it's not unreasonable to have forgotten them, after all, they were dropped because they had little impact in the games they played...
https://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/56972045

I wonder how many players have played alongside more? It's a bit hard to interrogate the stats database to ask that question. I managed to get that apparently Sachin had 110 team mates in his test playing career, and Ponting 86, but I couldn't find a way to interrogate the database about that question without running the query for each candidate for the record individually. Smart money says Sachin's 110 is probably the record...

I got 62 before running out of time. I'm blaming the clues, some of which were dumb. Foakes apparently debuted 13 years ago, Ravi Bopara is a test all-rounder and Graham Onions career was cut short by Anderson and not his crippling injuries.

[alfie]

Quite an interesting first day. Despite the fact that both sides are for various reasons playing without a number of their probable first choice selections - which gives it a somewhat "second class Test" look.

Good if stodgy opening session from Burns and Sibley ; but then NZ bounced back with some excellent bowling after lunch and the fragility of this England top seven was exposed again. Couple of horrible shots certain batsmen will not wish to watch again...

Lawrence stood up well after a few early anxious moments...looks a good player once he's set , though I'm not going overboard on him yet. And excellent support from Stone (who knew he could bat so well ? Score one for the captain/coach who sent him in at eight despite a less than stellar first class batting record) and Wood. Could yet top 300 , which would be a good recovery.

NZ the happier team overnight , I think. But enough in the pitch to keep the bowlers interested so we may yet have a contest ...

[Arthur Crabtree]

Wood getting a wriggle on there and getting out. England think they have enough? 66 added by Lawrence and Wood. 113 for last two wickets.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Feels like it's quite often that an England batter is approaching a ton relying on A&B to hold up an end.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Broad goes. Lawrence isn't going to get there. Graham Thorpe might have. Not a bad score for England.

[GarlicJam]

3 Reviews?

How long has this been going on?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Since the umpires stopped being neutral.

[Durhamfootman]

Conway in the runs again

[Arthur Crabtree]

NZ batting last. But no spinner for England. It undermines the advantage of winning the toss a bit.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hundred partnership.

My guess is the crowd is very drunk and more interested in beer snakes than the game.

Bumble having imaginary conversations with people in the crowd?