It may have been the pitch rather than any of the players that dominated this match, but for all that they repeatedly cursed its capriciousness England will have forgiven it all the moment they won the first Test of the summer by bowling New Zealand out before lunch on the fourth day to win by 115 runs. As Ben Stokes said, given all that his team has endured over the past six months, this week was all about the win.
On a pitch that was consistent only in its awkwardness, batting, against an array of bowlers ideally suited to profit from it, ranged throughout from difficult to impossible. As such, the tourists, starting the day on 55 for five and with 199 still required, never looked likely to turn the game on its head. But after Tom Blundell became the 11th batter to fall lbw eight balls into the day – never in a Test in this country have so many wickets fallen either bowled or lbw – Devon Conway and Glenn Phillips stayed together long enough to make the possibility at least be contemplated. In the end they added 53 for the seventh wicket, the second-highest partnership of a match in which most individual innings were marked more than anything by their brevity.
