England vs New Zealand: Jonny Bairstow’s century keeps ‘entertainment’ quotient high on Day 2 – Firstcricket News, Firstpost

Leeds: “Let’s carry on what we’ve been doing the last two weeks and try and think that we’re in the entertainment business,” said Ben Stokes, the day before this Test.

Well, when England’s new skipper talks, it appears his teammates listen.

In the end, by the time the dust had settled on Day Two at Headingley, the word entertaining barely did justice to what had transpired.

This was Test cricket, but not as we know it. England committing once again to the big game they have been talking ever since Brendon McCullum’s appointment.

For much of the afternoon it appeared that England were finally going to have reap the consequences of the carefree sowing they have been indulging in for much of this series – Trent Boult, rarely disappointing, producing a spell for the ages, the stumps of Alex Lees, Ollie Pope and Zac Crawley rearranged with frightening precision.

And if the day seemed to belong to New Zealand with England 17/3, when Tim Southee picked up Joe Root for just 5 to reduce the hosts to 21/4, it appeared the match was very rapidly heading in their direction too.

Stokes came and went, a 13-ball cameo that promised much but ultimately delivered little, and three balls later Ben Foakes departed as well – when England promised entertainment, 55/6 with less than 12 overs on the board, probably wasn’t what they had in mind.

Fans of four-dimensional chess could argue this was merely all part of England’s grand plan – back Jonny Bairstow into a sufficiently perilous corner and watch him tenaciously battle his way out of it.

And while the strategy may not have been intentional, Bairstow’s performance, in an increasingly wearing afternoon for New Zealand, was no less spectacular for it.

It seems almost extraordinary now that Bairstow started this series with some questioning his place in the side, here for the second time in two innings he dramatically underlined his importance to this newly resurgent England team.

After his heroics at Trent Bridge it seemed unlikely that Bairstow would ever manage to score a century quite as good as that – one innings later he might just have managed it, bringing up back-to-back hundreds and both at better than a run a ball, a feat surely few have managed.

However every good magician needs an assistant and in engineering this escape act Bairstow was more than ably supported by Jamie Overton – the debutant producing a maiden Test innings to belie his inexperience.

Together the pair bludgeoned England from ignominy to ecstasy, Headingley’s Western Terrace incrementally buoyed with every boundary, its proverbial roof blown into the Yorkshire air by the drive down the ground that brought Bairstow to three figures.

Their partnership grew at a speed that New Zealand began to have no answer for, first 50, then 100 and finally past 200 by the close. When stumps were finally called and the extent of the wreckage could be calculated, England were 264/6 – Bairstow a magnificent 130* and Overton similarly unbeaten on 89.

Should his nerves allow him any sleep Overton will no doubt be dreaming of the 11 runs he needs for a thrilling century on debut, while Bairstow and England will be eyeing the 65-run deficit and perhaps hoping that they can carve out what once seemed the most unlikely of first innings leads.

However things pan out though it would seem foolish to bet against them being entertaining.

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