Brendon McCullum led a New Zealand fight-back against England with a run-a-ball 97 to help his side to 208 for six when bad light ended the first day's play of the first Test at Lord's on Thursday.
McCullum, who had seen New Zealand’s top order fail again as they slumped to 109 for five at tea, on a day where rain meant there was no play before lunch, put on 99 for the sixth wicket with Jacob Oram.
But three runs short of what would have been the wicket-keeper’s third Test hundred, McCullum was bowled between bat and pad by a quicker delivery from left-arm spinner Monty Panesar.
PHOTO: AFP
Once more he had fallen just short of a century at Lord’s, having scored 96 in the corresponding Test here four years ago.
In all he hit two sixes and 13 fours, after coming in when New Zealand were in dire straits at 41 for three.
At stumps, Oram was 23 not out and New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori unbeaten on five.
Earlier pace bowler James Anderson, after England captain Michael Vaughan had won the toss and decided to field first in overcast, seamer-friendly conditions, took three wickets for 27 runs in his first 10 overs.
“It’s bitter-sweet,” McCullum said. “I’m obviously disappointed not to have made a hundred and still be at the wicket at the moment. Last time I got quite nervous in the nineties, this time I felt quite calm. In the end, I just missed a straight one.”
Assessing the state of the match, he added: “Credit to the bowling team. But for us it’s not a bad day either. With the overhead conditions the way they were, there was a chance we might have been rolled over.”
“If we had been out for 150, there was only one team that could have won the game. To be 208 for six and, arguably, with our two best batsmen at the crease is not a bad position. If we can get to 300 that would be a fantastic effort after losing the toss on that wicket,” said McCullum, whose side were playing their first Test since the retirement of former New Zealand captain and No 3 batsman Stephen Fleming.
McCullum, 26, is renowned as a dynamic one-day batsman. But New Zealand’s plight meant they needed him to stay in as much as score briskly.
“I felt like I had been here before,” McCullum said as he recalled his feelings on walking out to bat. “I worked out after the first over that batting conditions were tough. It meant you could be happy playing an ‘ugly innings’ for a period of time so long as you got runs on the board.”
The vice-captain, 36 not out at tea, completed a 65-ball fifty, his ninth in 33 Tests, with eight fours.
He then brought up a fifty stand in 70 balls with Oram by confidently driving left-arm quick Ryan Sidebottom, who took 24 wickets during England’s 2-1 series win in New Zealand in March, down the ground.
North Korea’s FIFA Under-17 Women’s World Cup-winning team on Saturday received a heroes’ welcome back in the capital, Pyongyang, with hundreds of people on the streets to celebrate their success. They had defeated Spain on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the U17 World Cup final in the Dominican Republic on Nov. 3. It was the second global title in two months for secretive North Korea — largely closed off to the outside world; they also lifted the FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in September. Officials and players’ families gathered at Pyongyang International Airport to wave flowers and North Korea flags as the
Taiwan’s top table tennis player Lin Yun-ju made his debut in the US professional table tennis scene by taking on a new role as a team’s co-owner. On Wednesday, Major League Table Tennis (MLTT), founded in September last year, announced on its official Web site that Lin had become part of the ownership group of the Princeton Revolution, one of the league’s eight teams. MLTT chief executive officer Flint Lane described Lin’s investment as “another great milestone for table tennis in America,” saying that the league’s “commitment to growth and innovation is drawing attention from the best in the sport, and we’re
Coco Gauff of the US on Friday defeated top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 to set up a showdown with Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen in the final of the WTA Finals, while in the doubles, Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching was eliminated. Gauff generated six break points to Belarusian Sabalenka’s four and built on early momentum in the opening set’s tiebreak that she carried through to the second set. She is the youngest player at 20 to make the final at the WTA Finals since Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in 2010. Zheng earlier defeated Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 7-5 to book
For King Faisal, a 20-year-old winger from Ghana, the invitation to move to Brazil to play soccer “was a dream.” “I believed when I came here, it would help me change the life of my family and many other people,” he said in Sao Paulo. For the past year and a half, he has been playing on the under-20s squad for Sao Paulo FC, one of South America’s most prominent clubs. He and a small number of other Africans are tearing across pitches in a country known as the biggest producer and exporter of soccer stars in the world, from Pele to Neymar. For
RSS