The first Test match between England and New Zealand at the prestigious Lord’s ground became a platform for the dominance of the bowlers on the first day. The batsmen faced a tough test as a total of 16 wickets fell in a single day. At the end of the first day, New Zealand were 66/6, still trailing by 79 runs.
England, who recently suffered a 4-1 defeat in the series against Australia, have made changes to their squad for a fresh start in the Test series against New Zealand. Jack Crawley and Ollie Pope were left out and Emilio Gay and Jacob Bethel got a chance. But even these changes could not give breath to the batting department. After the toss, England went into bat and could not withstand the attack of Kiwis pacers from the beginning of the innings. Debutant Emilio Gay started the innings with a boundary but returned for just 8 runs. After that, Jacob Bethel, Joe Root and Ben Duckett also reached the pavilion quickly and England lost four wickets for 34 runs and fell into trouble.
During this time Harry Brooke fought alone. Although he tried to support the team with 56 runs, he did not get proper support at the other end. As a result, England were bowled out for just 140 runs in the first innings. For New Zealand, Kyle Jamieson was brilliant with his bowling. He took five wickets and destroyed England’s batting. He was supported by Nathan Smith with 3 wickets and William O’Rourke with 2 wickets.
However, England’s pacers gave a huge shock to New Zealand, who expected to get the first innings lead after crossing the small target of 140 runs. Especially Ollie Robinson took the wickets of Devon Conway, Kane Williamson and Rachin Ravindra in his second over and completely changed the nature of the match. As a result, Kiwis lost 3 crucial wickets for just 2 runs. Even Tom Latham couldn’t last long after that. Darryl Mitchell resisted for a while and was bowled by a brilliant inswinger from Robinson on 12. Tom Blundell also got out for just 4 runs, putting New Zealand under more pressure. This left New Zealand with a score of 66/6 at the end of the first day. Glenn Phillips and Nathan Smith are currently at the crease.. Another 79 runs are needed to take the lead in the first innings.
