It was an innings that was as charmed as it was calculated and powerful, the product of four chances going down on a day when the usually reliable New Zealanders grassed six overall. Not that Harry Brook, unbeaten on 132 at stumps and having hauled England back into the first Test, had any reason to apologise.
As Joe Root pointed out before this series – and then went on to demonstrate with a fourth-ball duck before lunch – batting is a pursuit where the failures outnumber the good times. Brook may have cashed in on some profligacy – lives handed to him on 18, 41, 70 and 106 – but all that mattered was England’s 319 for five in reply to New Zealand’s 348 all out; a far healthier score than their earlier 71 for four after lunch.
There was one apology, however, Brook slightly sheepish about Ollie Pope falling to a frankly absurd one-handed gully catch from Glenn Phillips that drew gasps from the crowd. Unlike Brook, this was the only chance Pope had offered en route to a precious 77 from No 6 and a vital fifth-wicket stand worth 151 runs. Phillips may be the world’s best fielder right now, even if he was earlier among the guilty men.
Tom Latham could hardly admonish his players though – not that this is the Black Cap way – having personally put down three chances, including one late in the piece when Ben Stokes, 37 not out, cracked the ball to cover. It was all just so uncharacteristic, with these Teflon Kiwi hands previously so adhesive in India; one of the many facets that underpinned their historic 3-0 victory three weeks ago.
Fortune aside, the same could be said about the diligent spadework from Brook and Pope given England’s reputation for being a bit feckless in helpful bowling conditions. Until sunshine broke out and the Kookaburra got soft, allowing Brook and Stokes to make merry in the final hour, it was hard going out there. Pope, who made just 59 runs during a troubled Pakistan tour, deserves plenty of the credit.
What chance England opt to stick with him behind the stumps a little longer here, even with Ollie Robinson, a regular wicketkeeper, currently en route to New Zealand? It sounds strange on one level, with Jacob Bethell – the other half of the response to Jordan’s Cox’s fractured thumb and Jamie Smith’s paternity leave – falling for 10 in his maiden outing at No 3; the first wicket of a memorable start for another debutant, Nathan Smith, who then swiftly dispatched Root before lunch.
But given Jamie Smith is the chosen wicketkeeper long-term, and England lean towards the unconventional, they may feel they will learn more from continuing the Bethell experiment on this particular tour. Pope has three centuries from No 3 this year – six in the so-called Bazball era – but the peaks and troughs have become extreme. There is a case to say that, temperamentally, he looks better suited lower down and Root should be persuaded to take on first drop next year.
Making this point on the day Root suffered his first duck for two years is slightly suboptimal, admittedly. Equally, it comes just four Tests after his career-best 262 in that position. And Bethell had shaped up quite nicely in what were uncharted waters for the 21-year-old, looking calm and slotting two crisp fours before a bit of nip off the surface from Nathan Smith found the edge of a backfoot defence.
Sporting the moustache and mullet of the ’80s Ian Botham, Nathan Smith had followed Matt Henry’s early working over of Zak Crawley for a duck. A greater sign of the difficulty out there was the sight of Ben Duckett leaving deliveries outside off stump. But while he played well before the break – albeit surviving an edge to slip grassed by Latham – the left-hander became increasingly skittish after the resumption and eventually top-edged an ambitious pull off the 6ft 4in Will O’Rourke.
Devon Conway made no mistake at deep square leg but thereafter New Zealand’s catching standards plummeted. The first chance offered by Brook was a rocket to Phillips at gully that would have made it 77 for five, followed by Latham tipping one over the bar at slip. Conway spilled the third off a slog sweep, with Brook’s final life on 106 given as leg-byes on the field. Had it stuck in Tom Blundell’s gloves and been reviewed, it would have shown a feather on bat in the tickle down leg.
This focus on Brook’s luck detracts from the craft in between: the meaty drives, the murdered cuts and even a roly-poly ramp shot in the 90ss. And after that triple-century in Pakistan, he went past 2,000 Test runs in just his 36th innings – the second fastest Englishman to get there since Herbert Sutcliffe (33). It was just all very un-New Zealand and, three weeks on from India, a bump back to earth with it.
