Poor old Zak. Thought he had a chance of a decent innings there.
He was fine all the time Southee was bowling 75mph half volleys but facing Henry it was a single, then an edge through the slips for four and out third ball to give Henry figures of 5-5 against him in the series.
When you're in form, that ball drops safe or Henry just fails to catch it.
It does but that's the second time he's been out closing the face of the bat and being caught and bowled by Henry in the series. If he plays straight and sees Henry off then he can make hay off the likes of Southee, O'Rourke etc especially when the ball goes softer but his mindset and what he's encouraged to do simply isn't about that.
Great recovery from England given where NZ were at one point and great to see Stokes bowling the most overs of our bowlers (23).
One thing that does confuse me is that we had 82 overs of seam and not a single over of spin. The ball might not turn but at the very least one might have expected to see Bashir bowl an over (or maybe even two) especially shortly before lunch especially with NZ 93-0. What's worst case scenario? That he goes for a dozen runs? Should that happen, that would mean that the NZ batters are trying to take him on so they might get out doing so.
Presumably NZ are playing two spinners for a reason, albeit that Santner will be more effective in the latter stages of this Test but surely it was worth chucking Bashir the ball at one stage or other? Not bowling Bashir also sends a bit of a message to him that Stokes doesn't trust him and I'm sure Warne or Murali would have bowled on the first day of a Test. Bashir certainly isn't of that calibre, yet anyway, but how is he going to learn how to bowl in non-spin conditions if he doesn't get to bowl in those very conditions in what is a "dead rubber"? This is, after all, the very stage where he is going to have to learn how to do just that as he's unlikely to be able to do so on the county circuit.
Santner 3-1-7-3
Overs bowled by us in the first two days of the match:
I repeat. Bashir cannot learn how to bowl if he doesn't bowl. If the skipper doesn't have the confidence to bowl him and/or give him that opportunity to learn then he shouldn't be playing.
Comments
Bethell 7* (17)
Root 15* (16)
Well he was 'til he tried to play a back cut a ball that cramped him for room off O'Rourke
82-5 (18)
What's the follow on figure......148 ?
I should have gone to bed
Overs bowled by us in the first two days of the match:
Potts - 34.1
Atkinson - 31
Carse - 25
Stokes - 34
Bashir - 5
I repeat. Bashir cannot learn how to bowl if he doesn't bowl. If the skipper doesn't have the confidence to bowl him and/or give him that opportunity to learn then he shouldn't be playing.
Would fully expect him to sign a deal somewhere, would even have said Surrey but they've got Nathan Smith instead.
That's 12:30am our time.