England v New Zealand Test Series 2026

[sussexpob]

I mean, anyone who thinks this is an example of a terrible pitch should go watch the recent Windies v Australia pitch, because that series was played on pitches multiple times worse than this, and you had the added factor that the ball was also swinging in the air all over the place, and the uneven bounce went both ways.

Jayden Seales broke the record for the most movement in the air/off the pitch ever observed. Something ridiculous like an average of 3 degrees of movement per ball.

No sanctions.

[sussexpob]

KW was weirdly hyped from the start and that made me resist at the start. But he had a solid career and has an amazing average which marks him out as a great player. On his way down now though.Most overrated for me was Muralitharan, as he played by different rules from most other players. Otherwise, Jonty Rhodes didn't have much of a Test career, but got an excess of positive press.

I think the mark of a true world class batsman is some form of even distribution between playing scenarions, but Kane is flat out rubbish in places like South Africa where its proven over history that pace bowling is a notch harder to face. And his average at home, which does a lot of heavy lifting, follows the pattern of NZ pitches being an outlier where they become flatter in the 3-4th, historically so. Even then, he averages 5 vs India on those pitches, and 300 vs SL. He's been great at pulvarising poor attacks, and poor against quality.

Jonty wasn't a great player, but can others claim to have revolutionised the game like he did? Hard to underestimate his impact in pushing fielding to what it is now, and he was 10-20 years ahead of his time in preparation.

I don't agree with Murali. You can say he was treated differently positively, but go back and listen to the outrage in Tony Grieg's voice when he was called in 1995 in Australia. He was also humiliated and consistently targeted, famously being called by Emerson after the ICC had instructed the umpires not to call him. Even the Australian batsman looked embarrassed. And SL famously walked out a game vs England in 98/99 after the treatment he received. It took superhuman character to overcome that and keep playing to a high level.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Two wickets for Robinson and off again. Situation not doing NZ any favours.

[Arthur Crabtree]

When he arrived in the side I thought Tongue looked like a whippy bowler, like James Anderson- as well as the similar features.

Since his injury, every time he runs in I'm reminded of Merv Hughes. He's even getting a bit thicker around the middle.

My impression is the England bosses have been reluctant about getting him into the side. But I was immediately impressed in a similar way as I was when I first saw Botham, Gough and Anderson.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Nothing Bethell could have done with the ball that got him today

Though he was reprieved many times by the umpires off normal bouncing balls before he was dismissed

I wouldn't be so critical except, given his past choices, does he actually have any experience of playing in conditions like this against a decent attack? Does he have any resources to fall back on?

All the factors that made pundits express reservations over the winter have been repeated. It's a consummate rejection of the normal way of making a Test career. He can only expect to be scrutinised more than other players.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Stunning ball yesterday from N.Smith to get Stokes for 0. Looks like a proper nuggety Kiwi.

J.Smith looking good on a pitch difficult to make runs on, though admittedly not a match changing score.

[Durhamfootman]

Looks like 11 balls were bowled. I don't think that's enough to save on refunds anymore.

Oi.... that's commie talk, mister

[Durhamfootman]

Stunning ball yesterday from N.Smith to get Stokes for 0. Looks like a proper nuggety Kiwi.

J.Smith looking good on a pitch difficult to make runs on, though admittedly not a match changing score.

whilst not as bad as the Bethell ball, he did get out to a low one as well

[Arthur Crabtree]

yes... it's hardly been a fitting pitch for the milestone occasion

It wouldn't be good if all- or many- pitches were like this, but I don't mind some extreme cases and they sometimes make for historic occasions. Gooch got 150 v/s (arguably) the best ever pace attack at Headingley on a similar pitch. It was an opportunity to do something out of the ordinary. I think it's these performances that are remembered.

[bigfluffylemon]

Cricviz has this as the least consistent bounce of any English pitch since ball-trqcking data has been available - 20 years or so.

[Durhamfootman]

There is a theory being discussed by the cricket journos. Not confirmed by the Lords groundsman, as far as I'm aware, but it's circulating anyway

May bank holiday brought unexpectedly hot weather, 34/35 degrees hot, for several days. The pitch for the match was watered and watered and watered, so that it wouldn't dry out completely ahead of the test. Then from one day to the next, the temps dropped massively, 20 degrees massively, and it rained quite a bit. The intention had been to roll the pitch over and over again between the watering and the test to dry it out evenly, but with the rain and other matches being played it wasn't possible and so the pitch dried unevenly.

Probably a load of sh1te, I wouldn't know, but that's the hypothesis doing the rounds

what they won't do is drag the groundsman out to the media for public humiliation. We've already had one of those recently and it was somewhat unedifying

[alfie]

The ball that kept that low and dismissed Bethell on the SECOND day is just not good enough.

I remain to be convinced about how much of an outlier the pitch is, and how this is a difficultish pitch exposing how rubbish modern techniques are when faced with any challenge. Bethell was dropped a few balls before playing on the back foot to half volley, trying to transfer his weight forward with planted feet, and succeeding in airing it to gully wildly. He was again playing back to a good length ball with no foot movement to the wicket ball. If this is Jacques Kallis in 2004 getting a stride in with a straight bat, does he get bowled to that?? No.... he wouldnt.

And how can we exactly expect different? This is a batsman who averages under 30 in FC who disrespects the game to the point he doesn't think its necessary to actually prepare for test cricket. He hasn't faced a FC ball in 6 months. Would he have looked so inept if he'd played even ONE game as a warm up?

Are you having a laugh , SP ? Do you seriously reckon this pitch is fit for a Test Match ? Think I have more respect for the views of the ex-Test players commenting on the game who recognise that balls practically running along the ground on the first couple of days are very much "an outlier" .

The issue of Bethell and his questionable preparation is totally irrelevant. That ball was literally unplayable. As have been several over the course of this match , although they haven't all hit the stumps. Look at the number of bowled and lbw dismissals in this match and you might just wonder why most serious commentators aren't happy with the pitch.

As I have said before , I don't mind the odd pitch that favours the bowlers (or even the odd road for the bats , to be fair) . But this one is definitely over the top - or rather mostly under it.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Good to see a couple of the Kiwis putting up some resistance.

Lots of rain tomorrow, but not much chance Kiwis can hold out until then.

[sussexpob]

The issue of Bethell and his questionable preparation is totally irrelevant. That ball was literally unplayable. As have been several over the course of this match , although they haven't all hit the stumps. Look at the number of bowled and lbw dismissals in this match and you might just wonder why most serious commentators aren't happy with the pitch

I said yesterday England were not getting forward and playing proper defensive shots, using this Bethell dismissal as a perfect example. Well today, a nice stat just appeared....England average 39 per dismissal playing forward to length balls in this game, a figure that is way over normal batting averages. When playing back, that figure crashes and burns to nothing. So yeah, the data completely proves my point. When England batted properly, they did not get out. When they got their footwork wrong, they got slaughtered.

The Bethell ball kept low, but he jumped up from the ground to play it, the jump making the ball go under the bat. If he committed to playing a proper forward defensive on the correct line, what exact difference would it have made the ball keeping low? It would have hit lower on the bat, but importantly wouldn't have bowled him.

[sussexpob]

Are you having a laugh , SP ? Do you seriously reckon this pitch is fit for a Test Match ? Think I have more respect for the views of the ex-Test players commenting on the game who recognise that balls practically running along the ground on the first couple of days are very much "an outlier"

If you look at the hardest ranked pitches to bat in data, they are almost all uniquely high bounce/high pace pitches. The data shows two quite clear things over history....

- Pace and high bounce are considered harder, and ranked appropriately
- Increased difficulty in these factors has a strong correlation to sanctions.
- Low bounce/low pace pitches have never been sanctioned irrespective of difficulty rating, and the same is true of pitches that spin a lot.

The 2019 North Sound West Indies v England game is ranked the hardest pitch ever measured, and it was not cited at all, not sanctioned, and no one complained. Because it was slow. Any high bounce/pace pitch over 8/10 difficult is sanctioned. Ahmedabad in 2021 v India is the only other slow/huge spin track ranked in the extreme difficulty, and that also was not sanctioned.

The data is beyond conclusive - to sanction a fast bowlers pitch that is not a danger to players would be unprecedented. It has basically never happened before irrespective of how hard batting actually is.