England V New Zealand 2013

I enjoyed the series overall,i think both sides were even matched so a drawn series is a good outcome,only negatives for me were dead lifeless pitches and the fact that England's performances with the bat were not as solid as they have been,positives were Nick Compton's two centuries in consecutive games and Stuart Broad's return to form with the ball and of course Monty's return to the side,well done lads.

This was payback from the time that England tried for 4 hours to take the last wicket when Astle & Morrison put on an unbroken century stand,Astle made his own individual ton.Morrison was regarded as one of the worst number eleven batsman in International cricket,he helped save the match,but didn't play another Test after that.

England's batting was poor against a 2nd rate attack.
We badly missed Graham Swan's world class spinners.

However the fielding was top notch and Mat Prior proves yet again that he is one of the best wicketkeepers around

England were celebrating the fact they held on, by their finger-nails, to the draw. They shouldn't have found themselves in that position in the first instance. With a better performance they should have easily won this series - but with an overall lacklustre approach they must have been delighted with the 0-0 drawn series.

Let's hope England are ready for New Zealand this time round.

Most off England's squad have had decent form apart from Finn who will do well to keep his place.With the 1st Test at Lords & the 2nd Leeds they could play Finn at his home ground & then give Bresnan a go to see who the prefer to start in the Ashes.

Graham Swann returns to the England side for the first test against New Zealand starting today at Lord's and Steve Finn keeps his place ahead of Tim Bresnan. New Zealand play the same side for the 4th time in a row. After winning the toss and choosing to bat England are 56/1 at lunch (Cook 30 not out).

England finished on 160/4 off 80 overs as play was stopped around half 5 due to rain, the floodlights had been on since at least tea.

Clearly the day was won by the Kiwis, hope Root and Bairstow do a good job against the new ball tomorrow morning and Prior, Broad and Swann play positively when they come out and hope we can get some runs quicker than we did today. NZ bowled well but not great just with some decent discipline and I was surprised with Compton getting out that way for someone who normally plays each ball on its merit.

Two runs an over for 10 overs short of a full day,England have dug themselves into a hole.What happened to the aggressive cricket that who them the Ashes in 05.If England were looking for a stop-gap opener until they feel Root is ready ( he's ready now) then Carberry would have been better than Compton.

England are 232 all out with the last 6 wickets falling for 40 runs. Batting doesn't look straightforward though, so if England bowl well 232 might turn out to be better than it looks at the moment.

New Zealand have been bowled out for 207, leaving England a lead of 25 runs..

Yet again England have a 1st innings lead at Lords.