This series will be remembered for England’s new dazzle but New Zealand’s resolute middle-order pair have kept games aliveFarewell then, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell. However it concludes on Monday this series will chiefly be remembered for the rebirth of England in a new, thrilling and at least temporarily successful form, but this granitic pair will stand forever at its heart. While their opponents threw their wild and colourful brushstrokes, Mitchell and Blundell patiently set about resculpting the record books.They came into the fourth day at Headingley with their final partnership of the summer in its infancy, only seven runs in, and with England knowing an early breakthrough would almost certainly mean the game concluding swiftly and in their favour....
Opener’s flashy 25 was of a piece with the McCullum ethos but he could do with a bit more fear, and a return to his countyAnd frankly, were we not entertained? There were times during Zak Crawley’s blustery, tempestuous second innings at Headingley when you wondered whether we were watching a kind of brilliant performance art, perhaps even a sort of interpretative dance in which a 24-year-old man attempts to express the full gamut of human emotion via edges alone.Either way you could argue that there is no player in this all-singing England team fulfilling his brief more perfectly than Crawley. Continue reading...
England still have a frail top order and an unbalanced attack but this team do not need to dwell on failings from the pastShortly after half past five a wild and barbarous noise consumed Headingley, the sort that brings local residents to their windows and the day-trippers in the hospitality boxes streaming out on to the balconies.A few of the dozing members in the pavilion may even have been stirred from their evening slumbers. Out in the middle Stuart Broad was pumping his arms like a preacher. England’s slip cordon were clapping in time, beating out a fearsome tribal rhythm. Continue reading...
Azeem Rafiq made a low-key return to his former club while fans enjoyed collecting pint pots and some explosive battingA crowd might normally be expected to quieten during breaks in play, but as the afternoon session paused for drinks the volume on Headingley’s famed Western Terrace increased. People cheered as a man dressed as a lobster downed a pint of beer. A group in yellow blazers bantered with an adjacent group wearing orange cassocks, two flocks of brightly coloured parrots screeching loudly enough to be heard on the other side of the ground.Meanwhile, Yorkshire’s decision to ban beer snakes, the comically long stacks of empty pint pots so beloved of cricket fans, forced luminous-jacketed stewards to engage in a series...
The New Zealand bowler delivered one of the greatest opening spells this ground has ever seen to clean up England’s top threeThe long minutes at fine-leg feel like hours. Kicking his heels, tugging at his sleeves, brushing his studs across the clipped grass. Behind him the stands are a riot of colour and song, of bouncing beach balls and idle chatter and the rustle and rumble of punters to and from the bar. Trent Boult sees none of this, hears none of this. He does not walk in with the bowler. The ball is not hit towards him. All he can do is patrol this little parcel of exile, playing the game in his mind, ticking down the seconds until...