NZ Test tour of Eng, June 2-27

[bigfluffylemon]

Ugh. England let Mitchell off again not reviewing a plumb one.

[Arthur Crabtree]

First Test wicket for Overton. Nightmare day for NZ if the pitch is as flat as reported.

Especially with England's batting being so strong... now.

[Durhamfootman]

bizarre 5th wicket, seemingly

[Arthur Crabtree]

Down to Mitchell and Blundell again.

[bigfluffylemon]

Down to Mitchell and Blundell again.

Mitchell. Again.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Came as a reserve.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Seems like the 'ells are always in for the second new ball.

[bigfluffylemon]

England's early luck has run out later in the day.

Leach bowled well.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Hundred partnership just before the close.

Ninety overs too.

37 overs of spin on day one. Both sides might be wondering about the balance of their attacks.

[Arthur Crabtree]

J.Overton to play tomorrow.

as well as being in good form, he's quicker than the other bowlers and has the potential to significantly shorten the England tail. I hope he does well. It feels as though he's been around for an age without ever getting a proper run at anything. Smart move leaving Somerset for Surrey.

Big unit.

[GarlicJam]

A full 90 overs bowled. That is unusual these days. Only 225 runs for the day, that is also unusual these days. Tough going?

[Arthur Crabtree]

Especially unusual for Leach to be so economical in the first innings. One of his wickets was a rebound off the non-striker to mid off!

I think the regular drop of wickets kept the runs down. Mitch and Blunders scored fast enough.

[Durhamfootman]

A full 90 overs bowled. That is unusual these days. Only 225 runs for the day, that is also unusual these days. Tough going?

hurrah for that......

however in order to do it they had to play until 6.40pm

and that was despite bowling 37 overs of spin........ on day one of a test match in England

had they not decided to do this, I imagine they would have bowled at least 17 overs less....... or played until midnight

pretty soon, in a future series, they'll have lost so many WTC points and been fined so much money that they'll end up having to bowl spin, on pitches that are brilliant for seamers, just because they can't *modded* hurry themselves up a bit

it's ridiculous that they can't bowl 90 overs in a day and finish at a respectable time without having to resort to doing that. Spin is always used to catch up, but not to that degree. It is entirely possible that Mitchell and Blundell got themselves completely set and the scoreboard moving along twice as fast compared to the first 2 sessions because they had a 15 over spell of uninterrupted spin before the new ball. England may well have felt themselves obliged to do that because the over rate was so dire, rather than because there was something there for the spinners

[alfie]

Reckon England really made life easy for NZ after tea by resorting to a two spinner "attack". I have no objection to using Root at times - he can be a useful change option ; but to have him in tandem with Leach immediately after tea , to a new batsman , with five down and the tail nearly exposed ? Totally at odds with their stated plan to attack at all times , I would have thought.
Blundell and Mitchell are having a fantastic series. And if England keep dropping and failing to review against Mitchell he's going to become the new Steve Smith at this rate
(Have to wonder though how the devil the on field umpire didn't give that lbw out anyway : looked stone dead to me in real time. Umpires had a bit of a dodgy day I think)

225/5 could end up anywhere from collapsing to 280 or heading for 400 - lot of significance on the still new ball in the morning. Looks a decent pitch but as always , the overhead conditions here have a big influence so no predicting where this game goes from here.

[Durhamfootman]

(Have to wonder though how the devil the on field umpire didn't give that lbw out anyway : looked stone dead to me in real time. Umpires had a bit of a dodgy day I think)

I imagine he thought there was a bit of bat involved. England had lost a review earlier to a bat/pad (which looked dubious to me, but with no conclusive evidence to over turn) so I guess either England thought bat might have been an issue, or didn't want to risk going down to 1 review that early in the innings. Either way Mitchell is making the most of the bits of luck he's had this series. Good on him. He's holding everything together for NZ. When your form is this good, a player has to make the most of it and he is