Emilio Gay put England’s travails on the second morning at the Oval down to bad luck rather than poor planning or execution, after Glenn Phillips, Kyle Jamieson and some unexceptional and often short-pitched bowling helped New Zealand add precisely 100 to their overnight total in 99 free-scoring minutes at the start of the day, taking control of the second Test in the process.
Having come through a hostile examination from Jofra Archer late on Wednesday, Phillips may have been particularly surprised that it took more than an hour and a half for England to give the ball to their senior seamer, while they turned to the part-time spin of Jacob Bethell with the second new ball only five overs old. Phillips, his score precisely 100, became New Zealand’s last man out shortly before lunch, with their score 391; England, scoring at 3.76 an over, were 222 for six at stumps.
“Ideally it wasn’t what we wanted to happen, but that’s cricket,” said Gay. “I don’t know about those plans, I’m not in those conversations about bowling. On another day one goes up in the air and we take an early wicket. Joe Root spoke in the morning about just sticking to our plans and seeing them unfold a little bit. We could have maybe got a couple earlier on, but you’ve got to commend the way they played. On another day we get a bit luckier.”
In his second game Gay scored his second half-century, but only after running out his opening partner, Ben Duckett, who had motored to 36 off 25 while Gay, who at that point had faced 23, was on only eight. “Before lunch a similar thing happened and we actually said – which doesn’t make me look too good – to be careful because Nathan Smith is pretty good, so don’t take a quick single to him, and I did that exact thing,” Gay, who top-scored with 53, said. “The most frustrating thing was how Ben was batting, scoring so freely and putting pressure back on. If anyone was to take one it’s probably me because of how he was batting.”
Phillips looked to the heavens after completing what was a first Test ton, on the day before the anniversary of his father’s death. “Today is close enough for the moment to matter,” he said. “Obviously he’d have loved to be here to see that, and Test cricket was his favourite format, so I know he was watching.”
With England still 169 behind and with Jordan Cox, their last recognised batter, at the crease with Archer, New Zealand appear in control of the match. “I suppose you’d probably say so but cricket is a funny game, we don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” Phillips said. “We just want to make sure we keep coming back doing the simple things and do them really well for long periods of time.”
