England 167 (Wagner 4-42, Martin 4-43) and 421 for 6 (Compton 117, Cook 116, Finn 56, Trott 52, Wagner 3-141) drew with New Zealand 460 for 9 dec (Rutherford 171, McCullum 74, Fulton 55, Anderson 4-137)
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Steven Finn,
excelling in a new role as nightwatchman, struck a maiden first-class
fifty to make a huge contribution towards England saving the first Test
in Dunedin and saving face in the bargain. As Finn walked back to the
dressing room with 56 to his name, and perhaps his first experience of
pad burn after not far short of five hours at the crease, he was in
danger of being rewarded with a full-time appointment to go alongside
the gratitude of his team mates.
Finn's marathon resistance stretched until the second over after tea, at
which point he succumbed to an ambitious slog-sweep at the left-arm
spinner Bruce Martin. Spared Finn's sudden appreciation of the art of
batsmanship, New Zealand might well have triumphed. As their bowlers
strove gamely for victory on a docile surface, they will also have rued
the rain and bad light which prevented play on the opening day.
England lost Nick Compton on a slow final morning, with Jonathan Trott
and Kevin Pietersen following in the afternoon. Ian Bell's senseless
run-out of Joe Root, thrown out second ball for nought by a direct hit
from cover, kept New Zealand's interest flickering enough in the final
session to take a third new ball, but by then England's lead was 117
with four wickets and 25 overs remaining. Bell wisely saw the job
through until, with the advantage stretched to 128, the match was called
off at the final drinks break.
Pietersen's out-of-sorts innings immediately invited conjecture that he
might be protecting an injury and, to add to the intrigue, he watched
the last rites in front of the dressing room with a large black X on his
right knee. To offer such target practice was especially dangerous in
New Zealand, who can invent a sport for most things and who even now are
probably drawing up the rules for world championship knee archery.
Pietersen, Trott and Compton fell to the unflagging left-arm swing of
Neil Wagner, who will need every hour of his three days off before the
second Test begins in Wellington, but New Zealand never quite got on a
roll.
Finn could take much credit for that. The wagon wheel, which might one
day be framed in his downstairs toilet, showed five boundaries scooting
off in the general direction of third man, but he generally made good
use of his long reach on a pitch which slumbered to the last. James
Anderson, his predecessor, has taken a battering in some of the most
threatening situations Test cricket can offer, but Finn got a cushier
job and relaxed into it with aplomb. Wagner did test him against the
short ball eventually, but only at around 130kph and only when his eye
was in.
He reached his 50 from 142 balls, angling Wagner through gully, but then
decided to take stock, scratched a new guard and did not score for the
next hour and a quarter. His next single brought ironic applause from
the Barmy Army and a blast from Billy Cooper's trumpet. It was just as
well that he did dig in because Trott fell for 52 in the same over,
Wagner taking a good leaping catch in his follow-through from a leading
edge, and Pietersen soon followed to an inside edge from a nondescript
shot.
Perhaps Pietersen was just having one of those days. Just as he is
intoxicated by the big occasion, he can run on empty if a game feels
flat. If he guested in a club knockabout, there is every chance that
somebody would get him out for nought, just as there would be every
chance that Finn would get a hundred.
Finn escaped a couple of tough chances; in the first over of the day
edging very low towards Dean Brownlie at third slip and later, on 37,
sending an edge between the slips off Kane Williamson. The middle of the
bat often proved elusive, especially when compared to the timing shown
by Trott, but his stay was testament to the work England's bowlers put
in their batting.
England began the day still 59 runs behind and a couple of early
wickets, with the second new ball still new, would have opened the door
for New Zealand. However, it took them more than an hour to make the
breakthrough which came when Wagner swung one back into Compton's pads
who, for a moment, considered the review before deciding, wisely as
replays showed, that it would have been a waste.
Compton's seven-hour innings - 117 from 310 balls - was a study in
concentration and determination. He was given a warm ovation as he
walked off, his father Richard leading the applause from the crowd, and
was safe in knowledge that his Test berth is now secure.
Trott's half-century was effortless, a punchy straight drive off Martin
emphasising that there would be no last-day encouragement for the
spinner, who instead continued to toil on a dead surface.
England made only 53 from 28 overs between lunch and tea and Finn was
responsible for 14 of them. But the overs were ticking down and for
England, that was all that mattered.
David Hopps is the UK editor of ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: David Hopps
© ESPN EMEA Ltd.
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