Lunch on the final day at Lord’s produced a surge of excitement as New Zealand’s seamers, decked out in their whites, sauntered out through the picket fence in front of the old pavilion and began going through their warm-up drills.
It meant that after a morning in which the tourists had added 107 runs to their overnight stash for the loss of four wickets Kane Williamson had declared on 169 for six, setting England 273 runs for victory in 75 overs and thus dangling something resembling an enticing carrot.
Williamson’s global stock was already sky high after the way he and his side reacted to that galling small-print defeat in the World Cup final two years ago. Now here he was seemingly risking a further defeat in the hunt for a 1-0 lead, setting up a potentially barnstorming finish to a Test that had lost an entire day to rain.
But come 7.05pm the two sides were shaking hands on the draw with five overs unbowled and a few boos greeting it. The hosts had scarcely attempted the target, instead glacially progressing to 170 for three over the course of two sessions as the spectators who waited 18 months to attend a Test match then found themselves waiting for a charge that never came.
Dom Sibley was unbeaten on 60 from 207 balls, having delivered a typical tugboat innings based on a clip off the hips here, a nudge there and plenty of steadfast defence along the way. This was the Warwickshire opener’s eighth score of 50 or more in 20 Tests and, after taking 20 balls to get off a pair and following some struggles in India, doubtless a relief too.
At the other end was Ollie Pope, who emerged for an hour of no-win batting and made an unbeaten 20 after Joe Root had fallen lbw to the tireless Neil Wagner for a 71-ball 40. Root scored just four runs off his first 38 deliveries on arriving with 217 needed from the remaining 44 overs, the captain driving his team’s lack of desire.
It would be easy here to call this sun-soaked but sleepy final afternoon a case of roundheads versus cavaliers but the truth is not quite so extreme.
Granted Williamson’s declaration was bolder than most modern captains would have ventured, and England’s lack of any ambition was a source of disappointment, but both were informed by a number of factors.
Root aside, England’s batting line-up is light on experience and long on tail. Without Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler, it also lacks proven aggressors. Three of the top seven went into the fourth innings on a pair following their 275 all out first up and, while Rory Burns made 132 in that disappointing performance, the left-hander’s innings was chiselled out over eight hours of graft.
Indeed until Ross Taylor emerged swinging on the final morning with a slightly agricultural 35-ball 33, no batsman had been able to cut truly loose. New Zealand’s Devon Conway looked the most at ease during that memorable 200 on debut – what a story he is – but collapses from both sides up to this point pointed to a surface that was anything but straightforward to start out on.
By the fifth day it was starting to throw up some inconsistent bounce, as witnessed when Tim Southee twice struck Burns on the gloves. The soupy conditions enabled the ball to swing lavishly, both before lunch, when Ollie Robinson, Stuart Broad and Mark Wood all struck, and then as Southee and Kyle Jamieson resumed their burgeoning new-ball partnership.
Southee was the standout seamer on show in this Test match, his superb figures of six for 43 in England’s first innings followed by a seventh in the match when, for the second time in the match, Zak Crawley went at a ball with hard hands and minimal footwork to give gully a gift on two.
It followed Wagner’s removal of Burns, Southee this time the catcher at second slip with a fine low effort as the left-armer got one to hoop away and extract some extra nip off the pitch. From 56 for two in the 31st over, and thus with a required rate of nearly five, Root and the one-paced Sibley simply opted to shut things down.
The two sides now head to Edgbaston, previously a fortress for English cricket until its most recent Test in 2019 saw Australia’s Steve Smith play the role of Joshua and bring the walls tumbling down; while they keep talking about their revenge mission at the end of the year, Root’s men should be focused squarely on rebuilding these.
A batting lineup deemed good enough five days ago is unlikely to be shuffled but with the ball there are changes afoot. Wood is far hardier than some give him credit for but after sending down 34 overs – during which time he underlined his 90mph-plus potency – it may be that Olly Stone gets a run out on his home ground.
Then there is Robinson, who in normal circumstances would expect to be retained after a fine on-field performance that saw him reap seven wickets, extract more movement than senior colleagues at times and deliver 42 vital runs with the bat. Instead the 27-year-old will be stood down, his debut having been overshadowed by his use of Twitter as a teenager.
New Zealand have the World Test Championship final against India in their sights and after Williamson eschewed early handshakes, pushing England close to the end and handing Southee, Jamieson and Wagner late spells, it may be that they put one or two on ice. Either way, they leave London in better shape and certainly with less to contend with off the field.
