Category: England National Cricket

Atkinson and Carse have followed in Anderson’s and Broad’s giant footsteps, while Filer and Bell are a pairing to fulfil Christmas wishes

Fast bowlers are the Formula One engines of a cricket team: purringly powerful when they want to be, painfully vulnerable when bits fall off. When a partnership works, and sticks – Lillee and Thompson, Ambrose and Walsh, Wasim and Waqar – they carry the team on their shoulders. When that partnership fades, teams often falter, losing their identity.

It is nearly 17 years ago that Michael Vaughan and Peter Moores informed Matthew Hoggard and Steve Harmison that they were to be dropped for the second Test against New Zealand at Wellington, replaced by James Anderson and Stuart Broad. Harmison played only six more Tests and Hoggard never played for England again, while Anderson and Broad famously went on to be the most successful bowling pair in Test history.

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• Teenager made his professional debut this year
• Bashir to be given experience in Australia for Ashes

Rocky Flintoff has been called up to his father’s Lions squad for next month’s tour of Australia, with England using the trip to give young bowlers who are already in contention for a place in the senior Test squad experience of local conditions before next winter’s Ashes.

The junior Flintoff continues what has been a startling rise, having been given his first professional contract by Lancashire in August, aged 16. He made his first-class debut soon afterwards and was a last-minute call-up to the Lions squad in South Africa this month, their first trip since his father, Andrew, was named coach in September.

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Praise for Brook and Carse, with Bethell and O’Rourke announcing a new rivalry as Southee bows out

By Gary Naylor for the 99.94 Cricket Blog

Ben Stokes: 158 runs at 52.7; seven wickets at 36.9; one catch

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Jacob Bethell’s 76 and a frightening spell for Will O’Rourke enriched an otherwise predictable final day

12th over: England 49-2 (Bethell 20, Root 16) O’Rourke is again hitting 90mph, which turns him from a very awkward bowler into a mildly terrifying one. Even Root is struggling to find the middle of the bat and almost falls when a gloved pull beats the diving Blundell and goes for four.

Meanwhile, this email is spot on. “There’s something about Will O’Rourke’s put-upon demeanour that reminds me of Angus Fraser,” writes Matt Emerson. “Even when he was on a hat-trick he looked like someone had stolen his lunch money. He’s a bit quicker than the great man, mind…”

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Matthew Potts and Gus Atkinson took three wickets apiece as England fought back well on an entertaining first day

35th over: New Zealand 121-1 (Latham 54, Williamson 8) Latham reaches his fifty with a gorgeous drive through mid-off when Atkinson overpitches. He barely celebrates at all, just a quick raise of the bat, and he’ll be desperate to convert this into a first Test century in two years.

That dream almost dies when he is dropped by Duckett for the second time today. It was a really tough chance, diving low to the left at third slip, and Duckett couldn’t hang on.

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Brydon Carse’s ban has been the making of him, while Shoaib Bashir still represents an Ashes gamble

Unless you’re Australia, New Zealand is not an easy place to win a Test series. India haven’t done so since 2008-09; England hadn’t managed it since 2007-08. The relatively modest praise for England’s achievement suggests New Zealand are condescended to in defeat as well as victory. If the first Test was a flawed slugfest, the second was a clinical demolition. England put a good New Zealand team under so much pressure – listen to how often the captain Tom Latham used that phrase – that eventually they could take no more. In both games England perceived an early batting collapse as an invitation to go harder, a common occurrence in the first Bazball summer and a sign, when it comes off, of a team in rude health. It was also telling that, for the first time in a while, England’s players looked like they were having all kinds of fun.

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Gus Atkinson took a hat-trick and Jacob Bethell made 96 on a dominant day for England in Wellington

And another one! The nightwatchperson trudges off with a 26-ball duck after being trapped profoundly leg before wicket!

That’s lovely from Carse, similar to the one that was too good for Kane Williamson yesterday (but turned out to be a no ball), and it’s too good for Blundell as well, doing just enough to beat his defensive push and clipping the top of off.

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Gus Atkinson took a hat-trick and Jacob Bethell made 96 on a dominant day for England in Wellington

And another one! The nightwatchperson trudges off with a 26-ball duck after being trapped profoundly leg before wicket!

That’s lovely from Carse, similar to the one that was too good for Kane Williamson yesterday (but turned out to be a no ball), and it’s too good for Blundell as well, doing just enough to beat his defensive push and clipping the top of off.

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• Yorkshire player records his eighth Test hundred
• Tourists score 280 before reducing hosts to 86-5

Harry Brook hailed a game-changing century against New Zealand as his best yet after taming a tricky Wellington pitch and rescuing England on day one of the second Test.

The bowlers from both sides enjoyed a field day on a lively surface at Basin Reserve, England rounded up for 280 before reducing the Black Caps to 86 for five in response. A total of 15 wickets fell across three sessions at a rate of one every 5.4 overs but Brook was alone in dominating with bat in hand. He pounded out 123 runs in just 115 balls, blasting five fearless sixes and 11 fours.

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After star turn against New Zealand, academy coach says it was ‘hard not to make a success of things’ for the fast bowler

Brydon Carse’s 10-wicket haul at Christchurch, in his third Test, came as no surprise to John Windows, who has known him since he first rocked up to the Durham Academy as a teenager, all emu legs and broad smile. “He played as an overseas player in the league in Burnmoor just around the corner from Chester le Street,” Windows says.

“He played for them for a year, and it was straightforward after that, he joined the academy. Everyone was talking about him, as a super lad and a fast bowler.”

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• Vaibhav Suryavanshi, born in 2011, joins Rajasthan Royals
• Will Jacks and Sam Curran among England players sold

Jimmy Anderson went unsold in the 2025 Indian Premier League (IPL) auction on Monday, while Indian teenager Vaibhav Suryavanshi made history by becoming the youngest player ever to secure a deal.

Suryavanshi was sold for 11m rupees (around £104,000) to the Rajasthan Royals, who are coached by the former India captain Rahul Dravid. The 13-year-old – who was born in March 2011, during India’s winning 50-over World Cup campaign – made headlines recently when he smashed a 58-ball hundred for India Under-19s against Australia U19s in an unofficial Test match in Chennai.

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England’s record-breaking batter is set for his 150th Test and says he will play for as long as he loves the game

“I know this one,” Joe Root says with a little grin as he confirms the latest milestone he will reach in Test cricket on Wednesday when England play New Zealand in Christchurch. “It will be my 150th Test. We’re fortunate to play so much Test cricket compared to other nations, so you can rattle them up rather quickly. But I’ve had to work hard and overcome different challenges along the way, so I’m very grateful to have had so many chances.”

A minute earlier Root had been uncertain when I asked him if he knew what it would mean were he to score another 625 Test runs. A modest and generous man, Root thought hard and then admitted he had no clue. The answer is that, once those runs have been accumulated, he will become the second highest scorer in Test cricket. He will overtake Rahul Dravid, Jacques Kallis and Ricky Ponting and trail only Sachin Tendulkar.

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England want their best fast bowler primed for Australia but the IPL’s financial power might hurt those preparations

Jofra Archer has sensationally re-entered the Mega Auction and people on the internet are annoyed. You’ve got to hand it to the Indian Premier League. It is relentlessly inventive in its language, even if the direction of travel is always towards exhaustion by superlatives. So a six becomes a HyperWang Mobile Attack Maximum, a good catch the Standard Cement Super Happy Sex-grab Of the Day. By the same process, what could possibly be better than an auction? A big auction? A very big auction? No. Only a Mega Auction will do.

To be fair this really is a Mega Auction. Scheduled to take place from Sunday into Monday, the IPLMA will see 1,054 players whittled down to just over 100 available slots, offered up on this occasion in disruptive, schedule-defining three-year contracts. For the players at the centre this is basically your life, your pension, your future. Kneel before Zod, muscular Kiwi impact all-rounder. We own you now.

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• Anxiety issues curtailed former batter’s playing career
• Rob Key states ambition for future English head coach

Marcus Trescothick has revealed he wants to become England’s head coach on a permanent basis after learning to cope with his mental health problems. The former England batter is serving as the men’s white-ball interim head coach during the West Indies tour before Brendon McCullum steps up from his Test role to take charge in all formats from January.

“Previously I thought I wanted to be a head coach, but taking the reins for the two series against Australia and here versus the West Indies has confirmed to me that I would like the opportunity to do it at some point,” Trescothick told the Mail on Sunday. “I’d love to have an opportunity, when the time comes.”

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Shai Hope and Evin Lewis power West Indies to victory in a thrilling run-chase t0 breath life into the series

If you spot Jos Buttler, Jamie Overton and Marcus Trescothick in black armbands and wonder why, it is in memory of long-time Somerset supporter and fundraiser Mary Elworthy, who died yesterday aged 90. RIP Mary.

West Indies: Shai Hope, Evin Lewis, Nicholas Pooran (wk), Rovman Powell (c), Shimron Hetmyer, Sherfane Rutherford, Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Akeal Hosein, Alzarri Joseph, Obed McCoy.

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