Black Caps Black Book .../Diary - Day Four, Far From A Bore
Well folks, as expected by myself at the very least, England have shown that they can still play this Test cricket thing. Many thought that they would crumble but that's extremely foolish and we've seen that England still have cricketers comfortable on the world stage.
The first of those is Alistair Cook, someone who ran through a lean patch of form last year but after scoring a century in the final Test in the Caribbean and now putting England on his shoulders, is back at his very best. Then you have Joe Root who is England's Kane Williamson and then there's Ben Stokes, Ben Stokes who has scores of 92 and 101 in this first Test.
As is the way with Test cricket, there's ups and downs over the course of the game and it seems that those three English lads have taken the game away from the Black Caps. We got the early wicket of Ian Bell, but we must remember what poor form Bell is in, his 29 is his top score since the first innings of the first Test against the West Indies. Other than that, England largely dominated the day not only in terms of scoring runs, but Cook especially endured good spells and looked like a pure Test opener.
On the one hand I'm a bit down ya know? A win now seems a long way off as England have a 295 run lead and still have Cook at the crease. Many people will highlight the innings of Stokes, but Cook has held this innings together while the batsman at the other end plays some strokes. Cook is still at the crease and it's hard to see him declaring to make a game of it.
The Black Caps still have to bowl England out which could happen, but I doubt we'll bowl them out before drinks. That's our only real chance at a victory, we'd be chasing over 300 in half a day which is do-able with the batsmen we have but it would be a huge effort.
On the other hand, boy what a Test this has been so far. Each day has presented something new and we're only four days into it. The lowest run rate of all the innings so far has been the 3.63 runs an over from England's current innings. Both teams have had entertaining periods of dominance and while the result of a draw seems like the only possible outcome, day five could present something funky, you never know.
On the bowlers specifically, it was one of those days where a lack of consistency and batsmen in good nick just takes you out of the contest. Yesterday I made a big deal about Mark Craig, I thought day four would be a big day for him and more importantly for the team. Craig, unfortunately didn't do what was required and it's pretty disappointing to be honest. We didn't get to see what Craig could have really done, because he couldn't land multiple deliveries in a similar spot.
Especially when the seamers had done a decent job early on, taking an early wicket and looking likely with enough movement. When Stokes decided to launch into Tim Southee's short bowling barrage later in the day though it did strike me that besides being overly attacking, maybe we don't have as many options as we think we do? Or maybe Stokes is just in a rich bit of form.
Only a dumbo would suggest that Brendon McCullum should tone it down a bit, but. But but but, it does feel like there's a few too many easy outs for the batsmen. Plenty of gaps and at times, our bowlers aren't bowling consistently enough to exploit those field placings. Maybe it's the bowlers who need to do a bit better or maybe it's McCullum just seeing that they're not quite landing them as his field would suggest.
Like I said, Cook doesn't strike you as the sort of captain who is going to declare and give the Black Caps a chance. For mine, he'd rather play us out of the game and then try bowl us out with a freak James Anderson spell of bowling or something. I hate the feeling of being at the mercy of the opposition and unless we get Cook out early, I reckon we'll be at his mercy all fucking day.
Day Five Mission Objective: Don't suffer defeat.
Enjoy Ya Dinner: Ben Stokes, mate, the fastest century at Lord's?
Daily Thought: Why can't England's current caretaker coach, Paul Farbrace be their long-term coach?
Oh and top work from Roooooootay on the celebration for Stokes' century here, replicating Marlon Samuels' salute to Ben Stokes in the Caribbean...