Michael Vaughan Brutally Trolled England’s Fast Bowling Coach: After losing the first Test at Lord’s by 5 wickets, New Zealand have bounced back in a stunning fashion in the second Test, at Trent Bridge, piling up a mighty total of 553 in their first innings, despite the absence of Kane Williamson.
Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell, who had led New Zealand’s fightback with a century and a 96 in the second innings at Lord’s, were once again the chief architect of the Kiwis’ mammoth score in Nottingham.
Mitchell, who was dropped when on 3 by Joe Root, made the hosts pay for that costly mistake and he finished with a career-best 190, making his second ton in consecutive innings, while Blundell this time got to three figures scoring 106. Four other batters also scored 30 and more as the visitors batted for 145 overs for 553 runs.
Ben Stokes made mistake by bowling first
This was New Zealand’s highest Test innings total on England soil. That it came after England captain Ben Stokes had won the toss and elected to bowl first has raised plenty of questions over his and the management’s decision-making and their assessment of the conditions.
However, England fast bowling coach Jon Lewis boldly stated that Stokes had made the “tight call” at the toss as the Brendon McCullum-coach side wanted to take the “aggressive” route and bowl the Kiwis out, as they had done at Lord’s.
“We took the aggressive option. We wanted to bowl New Zealand out. It was the right call. The important thing about the toss was it was the aggressive play after last week,” Lewis told BBC Sport.
Michael Vaughan takes a shot at Jon Lewis
Former England captain Michael Vaughan, though, was unimpressed, and perhaps even befuddled, at Jon Lewis’ statement. After New Zealand had posted 318/4 at stumps on Day 1, the 2005-Ashes winning skipper took to Twitter to take a dig at Lewis’s statement. “318 for 4 reasons why I wouldn’t think that’s possibly correct …” Vaughan tweeted.
318 for 4 reasons why I wouldn’t think that’s possibly correct … https://t.co/FVRhQ2xgFI
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) June 11, 2022
In reply, England lost opener Zak Crawley in the second over, to Trent Boult, caught behind by Blundell. However, number 3 Ollie Pope batted with intent, scoring 51* off 73 balls, with the other opener, Alex Lees, in support who scored 34* off 77 balls, as England finished Day 2 at 90/1, still trailing by 463 runs.
