New Zealand batters thrive without Williamson and teach England lesson

And now for 900 words on the role played by all different types of soil in the development of New Zealand’s first-class cricket system. Really. This column probably needs a gratuitous reference to Britney Spears here just by way of apology to the people whose job it is to worry about the Guardian’s search engine optimisation ratings.

Well as New Zealand played, it was a good day for this kind of thing at Trent Bridge, where it felt, at times, like England’s attack was being taken apart by a firm of accomplished provincial solicitors, Blundell & Young, perhaps, or Mitchell, Conway & Co. Between them, they reeled off four scores of 45 or more while rattling along at the best part of four runs an over.

This is the first away Test New Zealand have played in the past decade without one or the other of Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson in the team. Taylor, their all-time leading run-scorer, retired in January, and Williamson, who only needs another 400 runs to overtake him at the top of that particular list, pulled out on Thursday evening after he tested positive for Covid. And they managed just fine without them. Think about how England have batted in these past 18 months. Now ask yourself how many runs you’d back them to make if you took Joe Root out of their line-up and the rest lost the toss against this attack on a green-top.

England’s opening bowlers are old enough to remember a time when it really wasn’t like this. The last time one of these two teams won the toss and put the other in at Trent Bridge was when New Zealand did it in 2008. England made 364 and still ended up winning by an innings. Jimmy Anderson took seven wickets, Ryan Sidebottom took six, and New Zealand just about managed to bat for 100 overs in the