Photos: England v NZ, third testKEY POINTS:
Tim Southee should have played in this test match.
Just look at what James Anderson achieved in New Zealand's first innings, in conditions he described as "ideal". Southee is Anderson-like in method so conditions would have been ideal for our young swing bowler, too.
I know it's cheap
to make these sorts of calls in retrospect but the signs were there long before Anderson bowled his first ball. The history of the ground, the weather leading up to the game and word of mouth all screamed, "swing!" yet New Zealand went in favour of seam in Ian O'Brien.
In fairness to O'Brien and the selectors, he performed well in Manchester and is far from the worst on display in this current game.
Leaving Southee out would have been a hard decision. Chris Martin and Kyle Mills are senior players - both swing the ball - and O'Brien is in a good vein of form.
But Southee has done little wrong himself and took a five-wicket bag in the lead up game at Northamptonshire.
Isn't this the scenario the selectors want? Depth that allows for "horses for courses" selection. Southee was the horse for this course.
I hope the selectors are not reluctant to play Southee because of his age and current developmental status. Hiding players is not the way to go. Let them learn through their own experiences of what it takes to make the grade. As for Southee, he doesn't look the type to get overawed by a challenge anyway.
There is arguably a case to have played all the seamers in this game. Generally, I argue against this as four front-line bowers and a reliable all-rounder should be plenty of bowling and an extra can become redundant.
However, the situation in this game may put up a reasonably compelling argument in favour. The Black Caps must win the game to draw the series and to win a test you must generally take 20 wickets.
An attack with Southee and O'Brian added gives two attacking bowlers in Martin and Southee swinging it in opposite directions; a steady influence in Mills and Oram (who is accurate at present but far from penetrative) and O'Brien, who looks dangerous when the ball moves off the pitch.
This obviously means Oram bats at six with Flynn the likely one to miss out. I know it weakens the batting, which is frail at present, to say the least, but all it does is just place more pressure on the lower order to continue to do the bulk of the run scoring and isn't that our strength anyway?
It's not the sort of strategy I'd use early in a series but a punt each way on what the conditions may provide - seam or swing - and a punt on the run-scoring ability of Oram, Vettori and Mills might just have been the best bet.
