England v New Zealand Betting: How New Zealand lost the second Test

Test previews / Andrew Hughes / 04 June 2008 / Leave a Comment

Ahead of the deciding Test at Trent Bridge, Andrew Hughes pinpoints where New Zealand lost the second Test. It had less to do with Vettori's captaincy and more to do with a lack of mental strength and self belief, he tells us.

It was a portrait of despair, classical in its simple portrayal of human emotion. Sometime during England's successful run chase at Old Trafford, a photograph was taken of Daniel Vettori. Shoulders slumped, right hand obscuring a face already shrouded by a heavy beard, it was the visual manifestation of the anguish that New Zealanders everywhere were feeling. This is what defeat looks like.

The pangs were all the sharper because this was a defeat that crept up from the shadows and dashed the cup of victory from his lips. That is not to say that Vettori thought the game was in the bag; he has been a New Zealand player too long for that. But for a newish captain and a makeshift team, a win in England would have been savoured like a vintage wine.

At around 12:30 on Sunday, Vettori had called his players into a huddle before they left the field. A first innings lead of 179 had raised them high. What the situation demanded, the captain urged, was cool heads. They needed to bat and bat and bat, to forget the outcome of the game and remember that every single run they scored would pile the pressure on England. If they needed inspiration, they only had to think of Hamilton in March when a much smaller first innings lead had been the base camp on their trek to victory.

What he would not have mentioned was the name Stephen Fleming. In Hamilton, it was the former captain who had guided a jittery batting line-up through that crucial third innings. This time, Jamie How reprised his Hamilton support role, early nerves eased with some crunching boundaries as Anderson and Sidebottom strove for wickets. Even at 50-2, there was something to work with. But in the absence of a Fleming to steel the batting, one by one, the Black Caps buckled under pressure, forgot the priceless virtue of patience and holed out to Panesar or took their eyes off his arm ball.

And yet, though their collapse for 114 must have been a blow to the team's solar plexus, it still left England to chase 294, only six runs fewer than the total they had failed to overhaul in Hamilton and 63 runs more than the highest successful run chase at the ground. It called for disciplined bowling, for patience and for control. Unfortunately, none of those qualities were in evidence. If the batting had been a feckless horror show, the fielding display was little short of a capitulation.

It is true that Vaughan's gamble in choosing the heavy roller on Monday morning was an inspired piece of captaincy. The spin-friendly cracks were compacted and deadened, rather than widened. But the pitch was no flatter than the Hamilton pudding on which Martin and Mills had rolled England over for 110. This time, the bowlers, Vettori included, erred in line, length and judgement. Striving for wickets, they coughed up wides, full tosses and no balls. As fielders snatched and lunged, wild overthrows were conceded, sharp chances spurned by stiff fingers. There were near misses, close shouts and stifled appeals. But in truth, their anxious efforts deserved no favourable twists.

In the end, defeat at Manchester cannot be blamed on poor captaincy. Vettori's field placing, his bowling changes and even his audible team talks in the huddle were sensible and at times it was suggested he had out-captained Vaughan.

Their bowling remains, on paper, at least the equal of England's and though Ross Taylor is a flashy strokemaker adrift in a sea of mediocrity, they had already done the hard batting work in the first innings. No, this defeat was not down to a lack of technique that can be fixed in the nets or with a selector's pencil. It was a deficiency of mental fortitude.

Having got themselves on top, they lunged at the victory and so it slipped through their grasp. This is why Test cricket remains a full examination compared to Twenty20's quick quiz. Successful teams don't buckle in such situations, they keep it together and execute their game plans. Call it strength of will, morale fibre or composure under fire, it was absent when they needed it and that kind of collective failure of spirit is hard to recover from.