Sidebottom finds his form

Seamer mops up the tail as England take charge

Last updated: 17th May 2008

Sidebottom finds his form

Sidebottom: four wickets

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First npower Test Match
Lord's - Day Two
New Zealand 277 (B B McCullum 97, R J Sidebottom 4-55) v England 68-0

Ryan Sidebottom skittled out the New Zealand tail to help put England in a strong position on day two of the first Test at Lord's.

The Nottinghamshire seamer - named England's Player of the Year this week - struggled to find his rhythm and finished wicketless on the opening day as the tourists finished on 208-6.

But he found the right line and length - and crucially some late swing - to claim all four wickets to fall for five runs in 10.1 overs, as New Zealand were dismissed for 277.

England's openers then made light of the Black Caps' struggle with the overcast conditions, progressing serenely to 68-0 at the close.

The players came off for bad light at 5.45pm, the sixth time on a frustrating day that the umpires had offered the light and the batsmen had accepted.

Earlier in the day the tourists had clearly decided to be as watchful as possible when they resumed and were content to leave any delivery which was not threatening the stumps.

Breakthrough

That approach served them well for 10 overs until Sidebottom made the first breakthrough of the day to end the resistance of Jacob Oram.

The all-rounder had batted for more than two hours for his 28 when he pushed forward at a full-length delivery which seamed away and edged to Andrew Strauss at first slip, who held on despite a slight juggle.

Oram had helped add 19 in an hour at the crease with captain Daniel Vettori, who seemed to view Oram's dismissal as a chance to finally attack the bowling.

Vettori, who averaged 46 batting at eight in the Test series against England in New Zealand earlier this year, struck the first boundary of the morning session in the next over when Jimmy Anderson over-pitched and was despatched to cover for four.

England turned to Stuart Broad and left-arm spinner Monty Panesar to ratchet up the pressure in search of a breakthrough, but Vettori was as defiant as ever and combined successfully with Kyle Mills in a determined 36-run partnership that lasted 18 overs.

But just as New Zealand were beginning to eye a total of 300-plus, Sidebottom struck with his second delivery with the new ball, an inswinger removing Mills' off-stump.

Troublesome thorn

New batsman Tim Southee fell in similar circumstances to the first delivery following a break for bad light after lunch, but Vettori continued to prove a familiarly troublesome thorn in England's side.

He battled for 162 minutes to move to within two runs of a deserved half-century, but was deceived by a full-length Sidebottom delivery, shouldering arms and hearing the dreaded death rattle behind him, not to mention the relieved whoops of the England fielders.

England's reply was also interrupted by bad light, but openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss survived the 12 overs before tea, crawling to 26.

They did play more aggressively after the break and Cook had hit six fours in a fluent 43 when he and Strauss took the offer of the light for the final time.

Comments (3)

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Abdul Moiz says...

Ryan Sidebottom have clean up the tail with the second new ball quite quickly, but for that English side have to wait for 80 overs to do that question arises from over 30 to 80 you have to be patient and wait for the new ball or sidebottom and co have some thing to offer in the middle period. As far as I am concern Sidebottom inswing is working quite well for him but he have to mix it with his straighter one which will make him much more difficult bowler to handle secondly he have to work on is how to use old ball for this he has to work hard in the nets and also by watching vedieo of Wasim AKram or Vass to learn how they mix up inswing with the straghter one and also the slower one and ocassionally the bouncer these are the tricks that are going to be quite handy for him against tough opposition like South Africa and Australia.

Posted 09:17 17th May 2008

Abdul Moiz says...

At the end of 2nd day play England are in a good position, to me only thing that England should work on is how to get rid of tail quickly for last 12 months against India, Srilanka and Newzealand this problem have cosistently teasing the english side, seams to be that they don't have any answer to that I think the team management must work out a strategy how to get rid of tail quickly. In this test too kiwi's are 105 for 5 and they have added 172 for last 5 wickets.

Posted 06:33 17th May 2008

Adeel Arshid says...

SIDDY WAS AWSOME WITH DA NEW BALL !!!

Posted 01:27 17th May 2008
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