This opening day was every little thing the sequence promised: keenly fought, tight and fluctuating.
On the lovely Hagley Oval, its grass banks bursting with spectators, it was onerous to think about a extra excellent setting for Take a look at cricket.
Stokes, within the metropolis of his delivery, shocked nobody when he selected to discipline. Regardless of the sunshine, Latham stated he would have achieved the identical, simply as 12 captains within the earlier 13 Assessments at this floor have achieved.
Whether or not England didn’t get the ball in the suitable place usually sufficient, or the pitch didn’t do its half, is up for debate however there appeared no apparent demons for the batters to battle.
England threatened in peaks and troughs. Their fielding was generally sloppy – they didn’t assessment Ravindra’s edge off Stokes when he had 20 and the skipper’s drop of Phillips is rising in significance. The vacationers gave away 21 runs in wides and no-balls.
Regardless of all of that, they hung in. Ollie Pope, standing in behind the stumps, went unnoticed and Stokes conjured the short-ball ways. Most significantly Bashir, after a disappointing tour of Pakistan, emerged as a wicket-taking risk by slowing his tempo.
The expectation is that this pitch will get higher for batting. England can really feel happy with their work, even when the damaging Phillips may but hit New Zealand to a really robust complete.
