England V New Zealand 2013

Well England managed to bowl only 26 overs in the morning session, but New Zealand still scored 141.

Averaging 5.42 i cant see england winning maybe a big maybe a draw but not holding my breath

New Zealand 241-6 Declared Fulton 110 McCullum 67 not out

England require 481 to wn

Latest - England 62-2 Cook 23 not out Bell 0 not out
Compton 2 Trott 3
FOW !-2 2-60

Close Day 4 - England 90-4.
The part time spin of Kane Williamson took the wickets of Cook for 43 of 143 balls & then nightwatchman Finn for a duck.England are still 391 runs behind,not that there was ever a thought of chasing the total.

England 158-5 Lunch
Root was out to the first ball of the 2nd new ball for 29 of the bowling of Boult having added 60 with Bell for the 5th wicket in28 overs.It could have been worst as first Bell 7 then Bairstow had chances dropped in the slips.

Didn't think it would come down to Monty & Prior in the last over, with Monty on strike.

YES !!! we got a draw !! England 315-9 Prior 110 not out.

I got really gripped by this last day. I couldn't take my eyes off the screen for a single ball. Monty's desperate dive in the penultimate over was a great moment of light relief. I think a special thanks is due to Ian Bell who batted for so long. I know Prior got the century and was there at the end and he batted for 4 hours to see it through, but Bell batted for 6 hours and was surely England's main hero on the day.

Joe Root didn't get a mention for the way he played on the last day.He set the tone from the first ball,getting of the mark & batted all but 10 minutes of the final session.Great to see Broad show some application at last,taking over 50 balls to get off the mark,the total opposite to the way he has been playing trying to slog every ball.

(26-03-2013 10:39 )William H Bonney Wrote:  Monty's desperate dive in the penultimate over was a great moment of light relief.

Monty's dive was legendary. I also liked the Stuart Broad moment when he was given out lbw as he collapsed to the ground and jabbed himself in the throat with the bat handle as he fell down and then called for a review while down on his knees. I thought the DRS worked brilliantly in this match and it was shown why it's needed.