FIRST TEST

wow - ducked away for a moment & a Broadside ;-) looks a cracking ground, the mount looks a little like the hillock in Saltburn near the old mortuary... Anderson from the mortuary end.. TBF that would make a superb ground, maybe a little small, but surrounded by cliffs, sea.. whiff of fish n chips & effluent tratment :-D
 
Coming to this late, but I'd say this test is an example of why we don't really want to play day - night in what we used to call (maybe still do but it doesn't quite seem appropriate here) temperate Atlantic climates.

It's impossible to bat in the evening. So the imperative is, bat first, **** it around for 250-300 by tea or soon after (not too hard in these days of massive bats and minimalist boundaries), declare, get them 40-4, job pretty much done on day 1. This sort of contrivance used to happen with uncovered pitches. Two hour slogs on puddings then put the opposition in as it got sticky; reverse the batting order etc. It was a bit farcical and that's why we binned them. Not convinced this stuff makes for good cricket either.

To be fair, England made better use of the difficult conditions on day two than NZ did one one and three. But it still doesn't alter the fact that in this climate, as in ours, the evening conditions have been the biggest determining factor.

So far so mundane. The only completely unanswerable detail here is what the Kiwi skipper was on when the daft sod won the toss and asked England to bat. And, whatever it was, can I have some please?
 
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FishofContemplation said:
Coming to this late, but I'd say this test is an example of why we don't really want to play day - night in what we used to call (maybe still do but it doesn't quite seem appropriate here) temperate Atlantic climates.

It's impossible to bat in the evening. So the imperative is, bat first, **** it around for 250-300 by tea or soon after (not too hard in these days of massive bats and minimalist boundaries), declare, get them 40-4, job pretty much done on day 1. This sort of contrivance used to happen with uncovered pitches. Two hour slogs on puddings then put the opposition in as it got sticky; reverse the batting order etc. It was a bit farcical and that's why we binned them. Not convinced this stuff makes for good cricket either.

To be fair, England made better use of the difficult conditions on day two than NZ did one one and three. But it still doesn't alter the fact that in this climate, as in ours, the evening conditions have been the biggest determining factor.

So far so mundane. The only completely unanswerable detail here is what the Kiwi skipper was on when the daft sod won the toss and asked England to bat. And, whatever it was, can I have some please?
Click to expand...

I don't think this gives nearly enough credit to England who were excellent again. Loads of superb performances with both bat and ball.
As for the climate, England have 11 out the last 12 tests in all sorts of different weather conditions.
 
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Was always going to be a worry for us, haven’t won a test in 8 goes now and England have won 11 out of the last 12.

Was fun while it lasted but I think we are on the downward spiral now and struggling to replace those who have retired.

England on the up and good luck to them.

Just hope we can give them more of a game in the 2nd test
 
England's batting is putting huge pressure on everyone they play against. Teams just dont know how to respond at present and it is showing in some of their decision making.
 
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