Stuart Broad was in magical touch on the third night of the first test. Photo / photosport.nz
Stuart Broad was in magical touch on the third night of the first test. Photo / photosport.nz
If England’s attempts to revolutionise the longest form weren’t enough, Stuart Broad and his side have now delivered a lesson in day-night test cricket.
A rampant Broad tore through the Black Caps’ top order on the third night of the first test at Bay Oval, setting up a potentially crushingwin in coach Brendon McCullum’s homecoming.
England have not been unmatched in the last few days. New Zealand have enjoyed positive periods with bat and ball, without ever seeming to dictate terms of the test.
That’s because the tourists, to borrow a phrase from McCullum, have been writing their own script.
It’s a text in which ostensible setbacks are instantly banished, all part of the plan. Captain Ben Stokes can be caught on the toilet when it’s time to bat — as happened midway through day three — and the promoted Ben Foakes will play the pivotal innings.
England lost the toss on Thursday and yet, the threat of pink ball under lights well established, somehow manage in three days to twice bowl at an unsteady Black Caps top order in the most perilous period. It’s no accident.
“It was all set up,” said Broad. “The way we set the whole game up, we were building towards knowing we wanted to bowl as much as possible under the lights with the harder pink ball.
“All our conversations through the day were about not so much runs but the timing of when to bowl, which is a bit weird but that’s the day-night system.
“It’s nice to be on that side, and you’ve got to put a lot of work in to control when you can bowl at the good times. Timmy [Southee] bowled a couple that nipped back in to [Joe] Rooty this afternoon, and the bowlers just looked at each other and thought, that’s a bit of us.”
It was, indeed, with Broad later bowling out four of New Zealand’s top six, finishing the evening with figures of 4-21 from 10 overs.
One key, the 36-year-old explained after taking his career tally to 571 scalps, was keeping his approach simple: “wobble the ball”, hit the pitch hard and bring into play the stumps.
The other key was England escaping from 237-6, when quick wickets from the Black Caps could have kept the chase near 300 - and, more importantly, seen it begin in sunshine.
Instead, with Foakes responding to his elevation with a relatively patient 51, and with the lower order adding handy runs, England progressed to 374 and set their opponents an imposing target of 394.
“We would’ve been happy as a bowling group with 320-330, so to get anything above that made us really comfortable,” Broad said. “It’s just a different pitch to bowl on with the lights - it just feels like it nips pretty quickly.
“We knew, if we could try and get 20-25 overs in with New Zealand’s quality at the top of the order, making breakthroughs was going to be crucial to the result of this test.”
Broad had Tom Latham and his teammates on the run. Photo / Getty
After New Zealand staggered to stumps on 63-5, leaving the result in little doubt, Broad was left to reflect on another special spell. Not among his best — “if I’d have got five tonight, maybe” — but one with enough quality for the batsmen to barely figure.
“Getting a wicket early always settles me. Once I got [Devon] Conway, I felt like it could be my day,” he said. “It was so simple in what I was trying to do — I was almost taking the batter out of the equation and looking to bowl the same ball whoever I was bowling against.
“I felt in a rhythm and the pitch was suiting me. It might be different come 2′o’clock; we’ve seen the pitch play differently at different times of the day. So all our talk at the 40-minute [dinner] break was inroads tonight, bowl as much as we can.”
There was never talk of altering their approach when the wickets were tumbling while the lead remained under 250. To the surprise of no one who’s watched England play in the last nine months, Broad confirmed that any such words would be anathema to everything McCullum had established.
“Since June, I can’t remember having heard a negative word in the changing room,” he said. “It’s quite phenomenal to watch up close how Baz and Stokesy go about their business.
“It’s positive intent all the time, looking at the positive option. Every day Baz walks in, he’s like, ‘What a job this is, what a gig I’ve got’. Everything’s positive — and it’s not fake, it’s really authentic. He genuinely, hand on heart, would prefer you to get caught deep square leg than out defending.
“It almost just felt inevitable that we were setting the game up to bowl at the right time — there was never a question, if this happens do we need to change any style?
“And Foakesy wasn’t sent out before Stokesy in any tactical way — Stokesy just needed the toilet. As soon as he sat down, a wicket fell.”
All part of the plan.
Watch every match of the BlackCaps v England series live on Spark Sport
