England vs New Zealand at Lord’s: A great advertisement for Test cricket
England vs New Zealand at Lord’s: A great advertisement for Test cricket
England’s contribution to art has been magnanimous, be it in creating, facilitating or spreading it across the globe. From literature to music to architecture, they have played a pivotal role in defining global art. But of all things they gave to the world through colonialism, they can be proud of gifting ‘cricket’.
Cricket is an art, if you get the perspective. If you don’t, you should have seen the recently-concluded Test match between England and New Zealand. It had ‘almost’ everything in place that one would wish from an ideal match of cricket. The sole reason why I say ‘almost’ is because the quality of spin balling on offer was rather ordinary, if not bad. Apart from that, there were good spells of swing bowling, resilient batting and attacking fielding. To top it all, you had a team coming from behind to win the match – the perfect script for an enticing tale.
New Zealand, over the last couple of years, have regrouped well and formed a good core to win matches. England, on the other hand turns out a different side, with the same set of players, in Test cricket. They show purpose. At Lord’s, neither team played badly and the eventual margin of defeat — 124 runs — won’t tell the real story.
Alastair Cook had to answer his critics after being sacked as captain and dropped from the limited-overs side. Ben Stokes, too, wanted to give action to all the hype built around him. He may still not be an Andrew Flintoff, as pitched by the English who love to overrate their sportsmen, but he has given a good account of himself. So has his captain and Joe Root, who is staking his claim as the best youngster in cricket currently.
The creators of Test cricket have done well to keep the tradition going for generations. They haven’t dominated much, but been competent. Unfortunately, much can’t be said about their exploits in limited-overs cricket, both of which — ODIs and T20s — were brought to the world by them.
New Zealand didn’t fare poorly either, but lost to a side which applied itself better on the field. Together, the two sides created a drama, engaging enough for even T20 fans to enjoy.
(Aayush Puthran is currently a reporter with India.com. He has previously worked as a cricket journalist with CricketCountry and as an Associate Producer with Sony Six. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)
(Aayush Puthran is currently a reporter with India.com. He has previously worked as a cricket journalist with CricketCountry and as an Associate Producer with Sony Six. Mercurially jovial, pseudo pompous, perpetually curious and occasionally confused, he is always up for a light-hearted chat over a few cups of filter kaapi!)