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hello world!
Well then. It feels like the day this test, and with it the outcome of the series, will be decided. New Zealand start at 86 for five, still trailing by 194 and with 15 wickets down on the first day, everything is going at a great pace. With Will O’Rourke, who has taken 16 balls over his wicket so far after coming in as a nightwatchman maintaining a Test average of three, the onus falls on Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips to get their side back into the competition.
The first day marked another spectacular success for Harry Brook, whose 123 took his away Test average to 91.50, 11 and a bit behind Don Bradman and 22 and a bit ahead of anyone else (to have played at least 10 innings away) in the history of test cricket (for completeness, his home average of 38.05 is good enough for 311th place on this list).
He’s obviously a wonderful player, but with many tipping him to be the team’s next captain after dipping his toe in the captaincy waters this English summer, I found his interview with the BBC for today’s TMS Podcast interesting: along the way, he admits that “to be honest, I try to stay away from pitching talk and chat” and also that “I’m the worst at umpiring pitches”. His clean thinking – to the extent that he thinks at all, rather than just relying on his instincts, he thinks about his own work rather than someone else’s – is clearly one of the reasons for his success, and perhaps when Ben Stokes’ time is over, England would be better off looking elsewhere.
Anyway, and most importantly, welcome!
