The first ball was a little full, and reverse-swept through backward point for four. The next was an overcorrection - dragged too short, now clipped through midwicket for another boundary. The third was another overcorrection - this time too full once again, and driven to the cover boundary.
A little after three o’clock on the fourth day at Trent Bridge, with the fate of the second Test in the balance, Jack Leach leaked three consecutive boundaries, each to a different shot from Devon Conway. As he took his cap from the umpire, Leach did so nursing figures of none for 38 from eight overs.
Ordinarily, these would be the prelude to being whisked out of the attack. But empowering players is a central tenet of England’s new approach. And so Ben Stokes continued to bowl Leach. Two overs later, after being reverse-swept for another brace of boundaries by Conway, Leach found a little extra bounce to get the batsman’s top edge.
The moment held out the hope of transforming Leach’s impact on the Test match. Instead, it was the lone ray of sunshine on a day in which Leach’s mood might have been as gloomy as the clouds that engulfed Trent Bridge - with one for 78 from his 20 overs, he neither offered the incision hoped of a spinner in the second innings of a Test match, nor any control. New Zealand’s thoughts on Stokes were, perhaps, encapsulated by Michael Bracewell advancing down the pitch to his third ball off Leach - almost knocking out umpire Michael Gough with the ferocity of his strike - and then heaving his next delivery through long on.
For Leach, there was plenty of mitigation: even on the fourth day, Trent Bridge offered spin scant assistance. It was easy to see why Graeme Swann, England’s finest spinner since Derek
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