It was 10.13pm on Friday in Barbados and while the fish fryers were doubtless cooking up a storm at Oistins, 8,600 miles away in Wellington, 3.13pm local time on Saturday, their boy, now England’s bat, was doing something similar.
Jacob Bethell, zero professional centuries to his name, was one shot away from ticking that particular box in his second Test match, at No 3. Like his family in Bridgetown, his friends in Birmingham and his supporters on the grass banks, the statisticians were poised, ready to herald England’s fourth-youngest Test centurion and, at 21 years and 45 days, their youngest since the second world war.
