Ben Stokes has given up warm-up cricket, pared back his training and, in response to a chronic left-knee problem that might have prompted a break earlier in his career, the all-rounder has cut his bowling to moments of absolute necessity.
This is not to say that Stokes has stopped putting in. Far from it. The point here is that the less the England captain pays heed to maintaining output, somehow the more this team takes on some of the less quantifiable aspects of his cricket: the aura, the game-breaking interventions and that unrelenting drive.
It may be that a team such as Australia, once freed from the tumultuous spin-cycle they are experiencing in India, find a way to push back this summer. But much like Pakistan last December, New Zealand have found this collective, residual glow under Stokes overwhelming on home soil, with days like the second in Wellington – where 12 wickets fell and England took a vice-like grip on proceedings – a case in point.
Once again Stokes looked to press ahead by pulling the plug on England’s first innings early. And at the Basin, much like the Mount, this meant the hosts heading down the gurgler. Staring at 435 for eight, once Joe Root had reached an unbeaten 153 that followed Harry Brook’s incendiary 186 ending first thing, New Zealand subsided to 138 for seven before rain once again cut short the final session.
Not all of it was about the unquantifiable. After dousing the threat at one end on day one with precision, as Brook brutalised the bowlers at the other, Root was impishly inventive the next morning. Jimmy Anderson, back in the city where his career truly took off in 2008, was immaculate when taking three wickets with the new ball. The best captains tend to have the best players at their disposal.
But as Stokes said before the series, he is less interested in being one of them himself these days, preferring to pour his energies into emboldening others. His 28-ball 25 as England added 120 for five was in keeping with the ultra-aggressive, borderline frenzied batting of his captaincy; that gimlet-eyed 103 he made against South Africa at Old Trafford the outlier during this period.
Anderson, meanwhile, somehow gets better. Just look at the Test bowling rankings. As was the case all those years ago, when he and Stuart Broad began their era-defining alliance at the Basin, he bowled into the southerly that comes down the Adelaide Road. But where he used swing to undermine New Zealand in 2008, this time it was about the wobble-seam, balls nipping this way and that off the surface.
The first two came during the challenging 35-minute assignment Stokes had set New Zealand’s top order before lunch. It also owed a fair bit to Ollie Pope on a day where his mop of ginger hair was being regularly ruffled by teammates.
Devon Conway, a classy operator with a first-class average of 103 on this ground, was seemingly beaten third ball. Yet despite no appeal behind the stumps – Ben Foakes perhaps still pondering his earlier slapstick stumping for a duck – Pope was convinced he heard a noise. Stokes had faith in his unofficial vice-captain and was vindicated when a tremor appeared on the Snickometer.
Kane Williamson scarcely lasted longer, tickling a loose backfoot drive to the wicketkeeper. When the recalled Will Young was undone by another beauty immediately after lunch, Anderson zipping it away from a right-hander this time and grazing the glove, New Zealand had matched England’s start on day one at 21 for three.
From here the two innings diverged, with New Zealand losing their next four for 82 in 27 overs. Broad struggled with his line initially but in his place Ollie Robinson sent down a string of four maidens to stall the hosts’ progress. Once Anderson was sent out to graze, Jack Leach twirled away unbroken from the same Vance Stand End to return figures of 12 overs, three for 45.
There was some grip for Leach to work with but two solid left-handers in Tom Latham and Henry Nicholls should have been tricky to prise out. Instead, a once daunted spinner who Stokes has managed to coax like a horse whisperer enticed both men to fall to reverse sweeps. They trudged off with a sense of the fates being against them.
Latham’s demise for 35 led to some boos from supporters, given out caught at slip off the glove and seeing this upheld on review. The replay was not definitive, the third umpire, Aleem Dar, having to work out whether it was contact with arm guard (not out) or wrist band (out). In the end, he felt unable to overturn his on-field colleague.
There was little doubt for Nicholls, whose encouraging 30 was ended by an under-edge that popped to a diving Pope at short-leg on 30. Somehow Pope topped this, however, with a quite remarkable one-handed reflex take at silly point off the newly arrived Daryl Mitchell - the kind that close catchers dream about.
When Broad had another go after tea and Michael Bracewell immediately popped a return catch his way, it summed up New Zealand’s inability to stem the force with England. Alongside Tom Blundell, Tim Southee did manage a counterattack before the heavens opened but his opposite number is the captain shaping an entire team.
