Key events
In the meantime, we need to talk about Tim. Tim Seifert and Tim Robinson: are they the first pair of Tims to open the batting together in international cricket? Tim Robinson is not the first Tim Robinson to be an international opener, though he is definitely the liveliest. Tim Seifert is the first Tim Seifert.
When Tim Henman was at his peak, regularly losing in the semi-finals at Wimbledon, Martin Amis wrote about him in his capacity as the tennis correspondent of the New Yorker. The piece was mostly about being called Tim. Nobody called Tim, Amis declared, had ever achieved anything memorable. Amis was a fabulous journalist as well as a formidable novelist, but he missed a trick here. This was in the mid-Nineties, when, unbeknown to Amis, the most significant invention of the age had already come along: the worldwide web, pioneered by Tim Berners-Lee.
If you’ve ever thought about sending an email to the OBO, now might be a good time. It doesn’t even have to be about the Ashes.
An email comes in from our old friend Tom van der Gucht, who is looking ahead. “I have been thinking a bit recently about the build-up to the Ashes and England’s warm up game against England A… This has the potential to be both exciting and have some thrilling sub-plots if not for the make-up of the Ashes team, but for future England squads.
“Looking back to before the 2010 T20 World Cup, England completely ripped up their plans and jettisoned Trott and Denly for Kieswetter and Lumb – the rest was history.
“if any of the Lions roar. Crawley, Pope and possibly even Bethell could see themselves being leapfrogged if they suffer a lean series. Also, it’s a chance for Flintoff to ink his name in as McCullum’s successor… Fredball!”
This may be the earliest on any Ashes tour that anyone has ever called for wholesale changes. “Send ’em home!”
Say what you like about the rain, it’s allowing viewers in the UK to have their breakfast. I’m sitting here like Paddington Bear, tucking into the marmalade. TNT Sports have switched to highlights of the last game between these two sides, which suggests that a resumption is less than imminent.
Rain stops play! NZ 8-0 off 0.3 overs
Here we go! That’s tough on the two Tims, who had made a rollicking start.
After three balls: NZ 8-0 (Seifert 8, Robinson 0) Wood’s first ball is an inswinger that swings all the way to the square-leg boundary, with an easy nudge from Tim Seifert. The second ball is a dot, and the third is another four – a full toss, thumped through the covers. But then …
The players are out there and Luke Wood has another job: to open the bowling. Can he make the new ball talk?
Simon even sends a PS. “Update: Luke Wood gave a speech to mark Salt’s 50th cap, which is what he was being congratulated for.”
Heartening to hear Simon say only “a chance of rain”. It felt like a bit more than that in his piece from yesterday …
The word from the ground
“Morning/evening/whatever from Auckland!” says Simon Burnton, our correspondent on the tour. “First, weatherwatch: yesterday it drizzled all day and while today has been dry (so far, there’s a chance of rain later), it was outrageously windy as I did the rather dreary walk here from town. England are unchanged, with Phil Salt collecting a commemorative cap in the team’s pre-match huddle on the occasion of his 50th T20 appearance (they really need to make some more effort with these special caps, because they are absolutely identical to the standard ones which makes it hard to see what the point is), and Luke Wood, who is making his 14th appearance, also getting congratulated for a reason I was unable to ascertain from a distance.”
From a distance, eh: the story of the OBO’s life.
Teams in full
New Zealand 1 Tim Seifert (wk), 2 Tim Robinson, 3 Rachin Ravindra, 4 Mark Chapman, 5 Daryl Mitchell, 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Jimmy Neesham, 8 Michell Santner (capt), 9 Zak Foulkes, 10 Matt Henry, 11 Jacob Duffy.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 Jacob Bethell, 4 Harry Brook (capt), 5 Sam Curran, 6 Tom Banton, 7 Jordan Cox, 8 Liam Dawson, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Luke Wood.
Teams in brief
England stick with a winning team. New Zealand make one change to their bowling, replacing big Kyle Jamieson with not-quite-so-big Zak Foulkes.
England win the toss and bowl first
When there’s rain around, you bat second. Harry Brook is often unorthodox, but not that unorthodox.
Preamble
Morning everyone, evening everyone else, and welcome to the decider in this Twenty20 series. A New Zealand win, the one realistic result we haven’t had so far, will mean the spoils are shared, which would seem fair after NZ had the better of the washout in the first game. But any other result here will hand the series to England – and that includes no result, which is rearing its soggy head again.
In Auckland tonight, as in Christchurch last Saturday, there’s a whole lot of rain forecast for the second half of the evening. Common sense might be gently suggesting that this should be a 10-over game from the start. Half the point of white-ball cricket, after all, is to have a winner before bedtime. But, as we all know, there are parts of cricket that common sense cannot reach.
For England and their novice captain Harry Brook, a win (or even a washout) would confirm the suspicion that they have remembered how to play T20. For New Zealand and the far more seasoned Mitchell Santner, it would show that they have never forgotten. If you go by results over the past year, England’s win the other night nudged them ahead of NZ. They now have 12 wins to NZ’s 11, while both have six defeats – and two washouts. Here’s hoping they don’t add to that last figure.
Play starts at 7.15am (UK time), all being well, and I’ll be back soon with news of the toss and the teams.
