It was on the morning of the second day of the previous Test that England in effect surrendered it, and it might just be that on the morning of the second day of this one they turned it in their favour. A different captain, a transformed team, a complete contrast in intensity and outcome – but for all that, it still started amid echoes of a familiar and really quite irritating tune.
For a while the players’ memories must have drifted back to those two ragged hours at the Oval, during which New Zealand added more than 100 runs for their last three first-innings wickets, the short ball ploy was miserably overused, Glenn Phillips and Kyle Jamieson enjoyed the experience a lot more than England’s bowlers, and an air of haplessness and despond settled over an inexperienced side that would never shake it off.
