A "pathetic" batting display has cost England in the first Test against New Zealand, according to Michael Vaughan. England bowled out the tourists for 132, only to then lose five wickets for eight runs on Thursday evening and eventually be dismissed for 141. New Zealand were able to move to 236-4 on Friday, a lead of 227 runs. "As a batting unit, yesterday was pathetic. The dismissals were not good enough at this level," former captain Vaughan told Test Match Special. Sums it up. Can't see us getting out of this one.
What makes it far worse is that our boys have had 2 months of red ball cricket to acclimatise - New Zealand have had none, not even a 2 day practise / warm up game.
Good chance of victory now thanks to the Root/Stokes partnership. 61 wanted with 5wickets in hand, tho' we do have a long tail.
Easy in the end. England win by 5 wkts. Root 115 no, Foakes 32 no. Root reaches 10,000 Test runs, Great batsman.
That was easier than I expected. Root must now be in contention for greatest England Batsman of all time. OK, i'm a massive fan.
(Yet another) superb knock by Root, with excellent support from Foakes. Partnership of 120. Loved the way they took it on this morning, no nervous prodding and poking at wide deliveries, confident, kept the scoreboard ticking, job done
Just seen that former Aussie captain Mark Taylor has said that Root is on course to break Tendulkars aggregate runs record. Must be hard for an Aussie to say something like that.
Who was it that said that when you win the toss in a test match you think about putting the opposition in, then you bat yourself. Not sure the right decision was made today.
England trying to get the ball changed. Reason why? It was hit into the crowd and landed in someone's pint.
I remember that from one under 15s game we played. Everyone wanted to bat except our captain who inexplicably decided to bowl. It was hot after school and then the light was fading half way through our innings.... it was so frustrating!
