England lose to New Zealand by one run.

[life on mars]

80 for 5 ..
258 target .
Could go either way .
Brooks duck .

[Eric the Half a Bee]

80 for 5 ..
258 target .
Could go either way .
Brooks duck .

Key partnership here. If it gets to 200, England will win.

[the other bob wilson]

Incredible test match

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/scorecard/ECKO54252

[Hilts]

Another fantastic test.

Wrong decision to force the follow on particularly with an ageing attack and its almost certainly cost England the win and the series. However its hard to be critical after the complete turn around by Stokes and co who are producing such exciting cricket.

After a dismal football season cant wait for this summers ashes.

[MacAdder]

Another fantastic test.

Wrong decision to force the follow on particularly with an ageing attack and its almost certainly cost England the win and the series. However its hard to be critical after the complete turn around by Stokes and co who are producing such exciting cricket.

After a dismal football season cant wait for this summers ashes.

You make good points.
The decision to follow on would never have entered a captain's mind until relatively recently with the main objective to not lose the test match and (in this case) win the series.

I think there is so much cricket played these days, far too much IMHO, that it seems not to matter if such a poor decision is made as the next game will be along very soon.

Ben Stokes made the wrong decision to follow on but he is one guy who always makes you want to tune in no matter how much cricket is on the telly and he should quickly be forgiven.

[MacAdder]

Key partnership here. If it gets to 200, England will win.

Wrong.
I hope you're not a gambling man! :hehe:

[the other bob wilson]

In complete contrast to when I first started following cricket, sides rarely enforce the follow on these days and I was a little surprised when I learned that Stokes had this time. That said, the history of the Basin Reserve in Wellington shows it is a wicket which tends to get easier as the game goes on and so it may be that Stokes thought England would struggle to bowl New Zealand out in the fourth innings whereas England would have fancied chasing down any sort of score given their recent record.

As it turned out, the pitch wasn't quite as flat as normal, although if the England team had written off Neil Wagner to the extent that the pundits I heard talking about him had done, they were asking for trouble - if one incident decided the game though, I'd say it was the running out of Harry Brook, who is already one of England's most important players, without facing a ball.

Losing after enforcing the follow on had only happened three times before in test matches and it is a bit of a humiliation for the team concerned, but I can't see England changing their approach although it may make them have second thoughts about continuing with Crawley, who I love watching when he's going well, at the top of the innings.

[TWGL1]

In complete contrast to when I first started following cricket, sides rarely enforce the follow on these days and I was a little surprised when I learned that Stokes had this time. That said, the history of the Basin Reserve in Wellington shows it is a wicket which tends to get easier as the game goes on and so it may be that Stokes thought England would struggle to bowl New Zealand out in the fourth innings whereas England would have fancied chasing down any sort of score given their recent record.

As it turned out, the pitch wasn't quite as flat as normal, although if the England team had written off Neil Wagner to the extent that the pundits I heard talking about him had done, they were asking for trouble - if one incident decided the game though, I'd say it was the running out of Harry Brook, who is already one of England's most important players, without facing a ball.

Losing after enforcing the follow on had only happened three times before in test matches and it is a bit of a humiliation for the team concerned, but I can't see England changing their approach although it may make them have second thoughts about continuing with Crawley, who I love watching when he's going well, at the top of the innings.


I’m not sure losing a test match by one run is a humiliation at all.

The fact is, Test match format was in danger of becoming extinct because of boring draws and cautious approaches to matches.

Baz-Ball has certainly reignited my love for the longer format along with millions of others and the winner is actually Test Cricket itself. I’m certain other teams will also change their outdated approach going forward.

The fact that losing after forcing the follow on had only happened 3 times before means that it’s probably a statistic that will change time and time again within the next few years, when you consider how many records have been broken by the England team in the last calendar year alone.

Apparently Rob Key is looking for county players who Play specifically like the current team when it comes to future squad selection.

This article pretty much sums up my sentiments.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/64782397

[the other bob wilson]

I’m not sure losing a test match by one run is a humiliation at all.

The fact is, Test match format was in danger of becoming extinct because of boring draws and cautious approaches to matches.

Baz-Ball has certainly reignited my love for the longer format along with millions of others and the winner is actually Test Cricket itself. I’m certain other teams will also change their outdated approach going forward.

The fact that losing after forcing the follow on had only happened 3 times before means that it’s probably a statistic that will change time and time again within the next few years, when you consider how many records have been broken by the England team in the last calendar year alone.

Apparently Rob Key is looking for county players who Play specifically like the current team when it comes to future squad selection.

This article pretty much sums up my sentiments.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/64782397

Your second paragraph is wrong, there've not been too many boring draws in recent years in test cricket. The product's been a lot more entertaining than it has been through quite a bit of my lifetime, but players outside the big three of India, Australia and England are better rewarded financially playing in the top T20 competitions of the world and this has had an effect when it comes to test cricket especially in places like the West Indies and South Africa.

I'm not being critical of how England play their test cricket now, clearly it's led to much better results than they were getting playing the more traditional game, so it's hard to mount an argument against it while results are going this well, but I'm sure there will be traditionalists who we'll start hearing a lot more from if the Ashes series is not going well.

I think any cricket team which loses after enforcing the follow on should feel a degree of embarrassment - the English seamers were outbowled by the New Zealanders in the respective second innings' and there was a degree of panic in England's batting overnight, especially in Brook's run out.

[TWGL1]

Your second paragraph is wrong, there've not been too many boring draws in recent years in test cricket. The product's been a lot more entertaining than it has been through quite a bit of my lifetime, but players outside the big three of India, Australia and England are better rewarded financially playing in the top T20 competitions of the world and this has had an effect when it comes to test cricket especially in places like the West Indies and South Africa.

I'm not being critical of how England play their test cricket now, clearly it's led to much better results than they were getting playing the more traditional game, so it's hard to mount an argument against it while results are going this well, but I'm sure there will be traditionalists who we'll start hearing a lot more from if the Ashes series is not going well.

I think any cricket team which loses after enforcing the follow on should feel a degree of embarrassment - the English seamers were outbowled by the New Zealanders in the respective second innings' and there was a degree of panic in England's batting overnight, especially in Brook's run out.

Last paragraph, Stokes said they don’t do draws in the traditional sense , so by forcing the follow on ensured a result either way. Losing is not that important , more-so in this test, as the series wouldn’t have been a loss and affected the rankings significantly.

I’m sure if it was a series saving Ashes Test he wouldn’t have enforced it. Stokes said in his interview with BT Sport, hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[Eric the Half a Bee]

Wrong.
I hope you're not a gambling man! :hehe:

I wasn't far out. Stokes went on 201, Root on 202. Before he went to sleep I made a prediction to my young lad that I thought they both needed to be in with roughly 50 runs to get. Similar sort of guess.

[MacAdder]

I wasn't far out. Stokes went on 201, Root on 202. Before he went to sleep I made a prediction to my young lad that I thought they both needed to be in with roughly 50 runs to get. Similar sort of guess.

Eric:
I've come for my winnings.
Bookie:
But your slip shows that you lost the bet?
Eric:
Yeah but I wasn't far out.
Bookie:
Hmm. Yes you were. Very close.
Okay, here's your winnings.
Have a great day :thumbup:

[life on mars]

Think England were fortunate when they took the last 5 wickets off NZ , in the latter end of their second innings, they could have added posted a much more formidable target , Stokes injury didn't help , knew we were doomed as James Anderson has never hit the winning runs in a Test match .