Ahead of the much-anticipated World Test Championship (WTC) Final against India, New Zealand’s confidence will soar when they beat England at the Edgbaston Test match and take the series 1-0. At stumps on Day 3, England lead by 37 in their second innings with the last pair at the crease. It can be safely assumed that the game is all but over for Joe Root & co.
New Zealand fielded a depleted XI for this Test. They left out, for various reasons, six first-choice players including Kane Williamson, Tim Southee, BJ Watling and Mitchell Santner. But even this depleted side put up a formidable effort under the leadership of Tom Latham.
Their bowling, especially, was impressive. Despite having to bowl first, they restricted England to 303 on a decent surface. In the second outing, they have left England tottering at 122/9.
Trent Boult, Matt Henry, and Neil Wagner have all impressed in the second Test match. Throughout the series, their fast bowlers have hit the right areas consistently and swung the Dukes ball both ways. They completely out-bowled their counterparts, even James Anderson and Stuart Broad. And the slow bowling of Patel has fetched them important breakthroughs.
With bat, Devon Conway, Will Young and Ross Taylor stood strong in the absence of Williamson. We saw a glimpse of Tom Blundell’s potential in his knock of 34.
New Zealand will now want to wrap things up at Edgbaston without much fuss and concentrate on their high-profile assignment in Southampton. The weather forecast for Birmingham on Sunday is fine. The Test match should get over in an hour, unless something dramatic happens.
For England, it will be their first series defeat at home since 2014. They will have a lot of thinking to do. The bowlers did well to restrict New Zealand’s lead to under 100, but the batters undid all the hard work. There was no resistance whatsoever. There was not enough conviction in the leaves; and there was little respect for swing or caution against pace.
Right from the start, England kept on losing wickets at regular intervals. At one point they were 76/7, staring at an innings defeat. Thankfully, Mark Wood delayed the inevitable with a 38-ball 29 to save them from embarrassment.
A comprehensive series defeat against New Zealand will hit England hard. They will need to do a lot of self-introspection ahead of the upcoming five-Test series against Virat Kohli’s India.