Exhibition of Test cricket's beauty at Lord's

Up until the second hour of the final morning, the England v New Zealand Lord’s Test could have gone either way. For the first three days both sides held the upper hand at different points in a contest that epitomized the best features of the Test match. The vicissitudes of the great game were on full display as each team’s fortunes went up and down like a rollercoaster. Tim Southee’s six-wicket haul gave him 10 for the match and after New Zealand dismissed the hosts for 213 on the fourth morning to start chasing the required 239 for victory; most observers thought it was anybody’s game.

But then Stuart Broad, who the visitors probably thought would have been the least of their troubles, totally obliterated their batting with a Test best 7/44 in an eleven-over spell. Figures of 1/64 was all the lanky pacer could manage in the first innings and so the tourists would have reasonably believed that Graeme Swann - considering the wicked turn part-timer Kane Williamson was able to elicit on the third afternoon - and the canny Jimmy Anderson were to be their biggest obstacles in reaching their target.

The Nottinghamshire pacer had shown the ability to take wickets in clumps before, but he leapt to a whole new level against the hapless Kiwis. By the time Broad had completed six overs he had flattened five wickets and the game was effectively over. The visitors were well into a free-fall at 30/6, with the other wicket falling to the guile and exquisite swing bowling skills of Anderson.

The unfortunate batsman at the receiving end was Dean Brownlie. Utterly defeated by a huge inswinger one ball, the batsman could do no more than edge the following one, which moved slightly away, through to the wicket-keeper. It was the work of a master.

The end came after almost an hour after lunch with the New Zealanders falling in a heap for 68 off 22.3 overs, all delivered by Broad and Anderson. Swann, who would undoubtedly have been a handful, and Steven Finn, who reaped four wickets in the first innings, were never even required.

The first day of this engaging Test never promised much. In fact the pedestrian nature of the English batting would have tested the fealty of even the most devoted Test cricket fans. When the day’s proceedings mercifully ended after 80 overs, the hosts had crawled to 160/4, and viewers at the ground, at least those able to stay awake, must have been thankful that the rains which had been threatening, finally came down hard enough to stop the play.

In the era of scoring rates close to four runs per over, England limped along at less than two for much of the day. Three boundaries were struck in the morning session – two by Alastair Cook and one by Jonathan Trott. By the time tea came, the count stood at ten, and16 at day’s end. It would have been understandable if die-hard Test match fans, viewing the action on TV, chose to switch to the frenzied scoring of the IPL.

Thankfully, Test cricket was back to its best for the rest of the game. Discarded New Zealand captain, Ross Taylor, showed on the second day that fluency could be achieved on a surface that seemed full of traps and land mines while the Englishmen were negotiating it. Quick to cut anything even slightly short, he never hesitated to ease onto his front foot to drive pleasantly through the offside. His 66 came off only 72 deliveries, in stark contrast to 31 made by the normally free flowing Ian Bell off 133 balls the day before.

England’s best batting came from Joe Root, who constructed, along with Jonathan Trott, a partnership of 123 on the third day that threatened to completely wrest the game away from the tourists. Along the way, the 22-year-old Yorkshire man showed why he is so highly regarded by those who closely follow his career.

The kind of ebb and flow that occurred at Lords is the most compelling aspect of the game’s longest form. If T20 offers entertainment that is visceral and provokes unrestrained celebrations, Test cricket’s attraction lies in the many permutations that often develop over the duration of a game; the intellectual rigor that it demands of those who would become its students; and the variety of skills it engenders in its players. Many batsmen can eschew restraint and swing hard enough and often enough to make 40 off 20 deliveries, but only the master practitioner can confront the most perilous conditions and the craftiest bowling to bat for hours and score a match-turning hundred.

It would be grossly unfair to say that T20 cricket does not require much skill. Chris Gayle, Shane Watson, David Warner and Sunil Narine are all highly skilled cricketers. It’s just that this four-hour game usually does not allow players to employ their full repertoire.

The series now moves to Leeds for the second Test beginning on Friday May 24. If the action turns out to be as fascinating as it was in the first test, then it will be well worth the attention of the huge IPL audience.

Courtesy: Garfield Robinson