Eng Test tour of NZ, Feb 16-28

[andy]

37-3 at the close ...England's day very good session there for England over rate overall shocking though

[sussexpob]

NZ bowled 23 overs in the first session...

I know Kohli and a few other Indian batters have been very direct about it in the past, and I believe (been a while since I checked the stats) that data supports it, but wickets in day/night tests have fallen far more around the period either side of twilight and in the night, than they have during the day. It would sort of make sense for a team to hold of on the over rate early in the day when scoring is better, and then get stuck in when wickets fall.

[sussexpob]

Declared on 325/9

I doubt it'll be enough, but England have sprung a lot of surprises recently.

I think with the exception of Australia, who have made some big scores at Adelaide underlights, no one else has much of a convincing history of batting in day/night games. 325 is above (And considerably above in some cases) the grade for all teams but the Aussies. Its still a format in its infancy, so not a great sample size, but anything over 300 seems tough to chase

Could also make the case that Australia's decent record in DN games in Adelaide still represents a downcurve on their usual test match batting output at home, so I think there is a convincing argument that DN games are much harder to score on.

325 is possibly more like 400 in a day game - but thats a total guess.

[alfie]

Oh look, Crawley's out.

England rattling along at 6 an over though. I half wonder if the plan is to be 350 all out by dinner, then get a crack at NZ under the lights...

Looking back through the posts...I see you were not far off with this one , BFL

[alfie]

37-3 at the close ...England's day very good session there for England over rate overall shocking though

In defence of NZ in this : the first session saw a couple of significant delays which certainly impacted the over rate. There was a problem with a sightboard early on which took a few minutes to resolve ; and we had a helmet smash/ health check business later in the session. Plus an extra over of no balls and wides

Over rate wasn't great with only one over of spin ; but I think the above factors trimmed off several overs from what should have been.

[alfie]

Anyway a very good first day for England - especially after the first couple of Southee overs looking likely to bring a wicket any ball - though it only got Crawley who might have been out about three times before he was (and all in three overs !) Duckett took it right away from NZ immediately and with the new boys bowling right old rubbish and Wagner all over the place (apparently bowling with a new ball must have scrambled his radar completely) England looked to be heading for a second Rawalpindi ...

Couple of careless wickets thrown away , but Brook took up where he left off in Pakistan ; and if he will be annoyed to get out short of his hundred , he might reflect that his getting out when it did precipitated a quick collapse which led to the enterprising declaration and three vital wickets under the lights ; so was arguably just what England and the game needed. Should be a result from here unless we lose a lot of time to the weather.

Enjoyed the day. Bright batting - Brook and Duckett both impressive ; always fun watching Anderson moving the ball round corners...and nice to hear Gower on commentary again.

Tomorrow another day. Mustn't forget the two men who made all the runs against England in the northern summer are yet to come in ; and bowling in daylight with the pink thing might be less rewarding. But confidence will be high in the tourist's camp tonight and NZ face a tough task getting up near the 325 - even if that is 100 or so less than they might have feared at dinner time.

[sussexpob]

Over rate wasn't great with only one over of spin ; but I think the above factors trimmed off several overs from what should have been.

Playing with floodlights on in the dark anyway, why do they even have a finish time? If there are no stoppages where play is suspended, the game should continue until the overs are bowled.

One of the main reasons we always lose so many overs is arbitrary finish times to days. The crowd paid for 90 overs, play on

[sussexpob]

In fact, call it a revolutionary idea, but teams who cannot make their over rates for no good reason should be fined a portion of the ticket price for spectators, who can then claim partial refunds.

I wonder how many football fans would accept routinely paying for matches where the referee just blew the whistle after 75 minutes.

[Durhamfootman]

In fact, call it a revolutionary idea, but teams who cannot make their over rates for no good reason should be fined a portion of the ticket price for spectators, who can then claim partial refunds.

Dobell has been saying something similar for a year or two now. His view, given the overwhelming proportion of test tickets paid for on plastic, is that after every day's play automatic refunds should be given for the percentage of overs 'lost'. He also thinks that the ECB would kill slow play stone dead the moment they had to start handing back money.... and I tend to agree with him

it is such an easy thing to fix. It just requires the will to fix it

[bigfluffylemon]

Oh look, Crawley's out.

England rattling along at 6 an over though. I half wonder if the plan is to be 350 all out by dinner, then get a crack at NZ under the lights...

Looking back through the posts...I see you were not far off with this one , BFL

I'll claim it

[bigfluffylemon]

Over rate wasn't great with only one over of spin ; but I think the above factors trimmed off several overs from what should have been.

Playing with floodlights on in the dark anyway, why do they even have a finish time? If there are no stoppages where play is suspended, the game should continue until the overs are bowled.

One of the main reasons we always lose so many overs is arbitrary finish times to days. The crowd paid for 90 overs, play on

I agree, although it might encourage the gamesmanship that you alluded to above with slow over rates in the first session.

There are a lot of practical reasons for stopping the game at a defined time rather than letting it go on, unfortunately. TV schedules needing the game to wind up by a certain time (although with streaming and digital channels you'd think that would be less of an issue. In Aus, any match shown on terrestrial TV still has to schedule breaks and/or the end of the game so that the 6pm news isn't interrupted on whatever channel. Heaven forbid). Ground staff, cleaners, food and drink stand workers etc. would all have to stay later and presumably be paid overtime. Public transport arranged to take people home, and police or whoever on crowd control when the match lets out.

That said, limited overs games keep going until the overs are bowled, even if behind, but I guess it's usually not more than 5-10 minutes.

I totally agree that over rates need to be brought into line, but I think you'd have to do it through harsher punishment rather than forcing the overs to be bowled regardless. The BBL penalises a bowling team that is behind on the over rate with additional fielding restrictions - once the clock runs out, you're only allowed 2 fielders outside the circle. I like that. Obviously wouldn't work for tests, but run and financial penalties should be considered.

[bigfluffylemon]

Mitchell goes for a duck, obviously, as I have him in my fantasy team.

England chipping away. The 6th wicket stand might do for them again, but so far they are very much on top.

I don't rate Bracewell as a test cricketer at all. Now I've said that he'll probably score 100. But he was dismal in England.

[bigfluffylemon]

101 runs for 2 wickets in that session, one of them the nightwatchmen. Probably NZ's session. It is (unsurprisingly) not that difficult to bat when the sun's out on this wicket compared to under lights. England will be aiming to keep a lid on the scoring rate this afternoon.

[bigfluffylemon]

England really let that slide from 80/5 and 170/7. Blundell continuing his torture of the England bowlers after the summer.

[bigfluffylemon]

Openers go after both failing to convert starts. Live by the sword and all that.