It took until gone 5.30 for a moment to arrive to finally lift the English gloom. It had been a wet and wild start the Test summer, rain and wickets tumbling to dull what was meant to be a bright new start to banish the Ashes woes. Bowled out for 140 inside 40 overs, the pessimistic chuntering around the hosts had long since begun by the time their last pair disappeared to the dressing room. Fresh English approach; same old story.
But on a pitch offering lavish movement, and in conditions to which he was ideally suited, in the space of six balls, Ollie Robinson provided a reminder of just why England have recalled him. For more than two years, Robinson had sat and wondered – wondered what might have been, wondered, perhaps, what he had done wrong. His qualities had never been in doubt; his application, fitness and attitude perhaps so. But with a winter of error and Australian top-order terror leaving a vacancy for someone of precisely his skillset, Robinson showed the high-class new-ball bowler he remains to strike thrice in his first over and tilt a Test unlikely to go close to the distance and spare a few blushes.
There was not, in fact, much cause for embarrassment on what had nonetheless looked likely to prove a discouraging day for the hosts. The plain accounting of their collapse to 140 all out does not make pretty reading, but England were worn down by a relentless visiting New Zealand attack. For all the talk of a refinement in method from the hosts, this was not a day where poking and prodding or prancing and dancing made much difference – only Harry Brook (51) provided some sort of resistance, and he should have been gone for single figures.
The visiting bowling effort was made all the more impressive by the fact it came, largely, without attack-leader Matt Henry, capable only of four overs before leaving the field with a spasming back. Kyle Jamieson was the standout with 5-62 and found strong support from Will O’Rourke and Nathan Smith ensured Henry was not missed.
It seemed certain they would be the story; Robinson ensured they were not. Probing and penetrating, he trapped left-handers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra in front with nip up the slope either side of removing Kane Williamson, caught at short leg. Allow me to reintroduce myself, a celebratory spreading of the Sussex seamer’s arms seemed to say.
When Gus Atkinson pinned Tom Latham, 14 wickets had fallen in fewer than 50 opening-day overs – and more were to come. Robinson had time for one more, nipping one up the hill into the top of a leaving Daryl Mitchell’s off stump, and Josh Tongue got in on the act by shivering Tom Blundell’s timbers. When bad light halted play at 20 past seven, New Zealand were 61-6 and 79 in arrears. Rain may have its say again in this Test but one can probably start making alternative plans for Sunday and Monday.
Ah, the ever-cruel, ever-capricious British summer, sun-soaked for so long yet unfriendly as the Test summer began. It had been one of those drab and dense summer mornings at Lord’s, the kind that stickies the shirt and dampens the brow. Egg and bacon umbrellas around St John’s Wood were the warning stripes of what was to come. It was a slight surprise that play commenced on time during a short spell where the clouds and crowds lifted; in they rolled, in they went, as the rain began to fall after 45 minutes.
Ben Stokes had spoken at length on match eve of his desire to get going, to right the wrongs of their misadventure Down Under, to banish the bad memories of an Ashes series best forgotten. A five-month gap between Tests, Stokes rightly remarked, is a rarity in this time of fixture congestion; and perhaps untimely, given that over which England have had to chew.
The coin falling the way of Latham, the visiting captain, could have been more gristle on what might have proved a grisly opening to the summer. It was with tentative strides that Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay had ventured out, with much anticipation over how they would play. Would a new approach be clear? The early evidence suggested so. Duckett shouldered arms to three of his first four balls with the discipline of a tee-totaller; a tally of 24 from the opening 10 overs was the joint-fewest since Stokes and Brendon McCullum were first united four years ago.
There was mitigation for the sedate start, of course. Matters overhead captured immediate attention, but a glance down suggested a tricky surface, and Kiwi keeper Tom Blundell had to scoop the first delivery of the day on the hop. Gay, on debut, was always likely to be watchful; two crisp drives gave a glimpse of his stroke-making style before he was squared up by Jamieson. Mitchell pouched the edge low at first slip.
One could not criticise the debutant. Gay had been handed his cap by Alastair Cook, a fellow product of Bedford School who might have warned the left-hander that he will face a tough Test education. A similar lesson might have come from his opening partner – nine balls into the restart following a two-hour rain delay, a watchful Duckett was LBW to Smith for 18.
Jacob Bethell followed via the same method to O’Rourke, before Joe Root nicked behind in a collapse of three for three to 34-4. It nearly became 44 for five, only for Devon Conway to grass a sharp chance off Brook at backward point. 11 runs later, though, and England were halfway gone, an error of judgement from Jamie Smith accounting for his off stump.
Brook flashed and flayed to provide some fight in a stand of 39 with captain Stokes, before a superb catch from Williamson in the cordon removed the English skipper. Brook ploughed on riding his luck – Ravindra shelled a sitter at deep square leg with the batter on 45 – and reached 50 with a nick through the slips, before picking out fine leg soon after the departure of Atkinson.
The rain’s return brought blessed relief for England’s batters, for there had been no let up from a varied visiting seam attack. Jamieson’s height, O’Rourke’s awkward angle and Smith’s skiddiness posed alternative questions. The breaks worked in their favour, creating moments to rest and recharge. Freshened up by an extended tea, the towering Jamieson completed a sixth five-wicket haul in Test cricket, before Smith extinguished the innings inside 40 overs. But then came Robinson, and at last reason for English cheer.
