England were forced to be patient on day three of the second Test against New Zealand

There haven’t been many times in a Test year of fast-forward cricket when England have been forced to sit down and display the one ingredient they are reluctant to include in their potent ‘Bazball’ mix: patience.

They certainly needed him on day three of this final Test after Tom Latham and Devon Conway threatened to make Ben Stokes pay for what has become a rare but totally offensive move to enforce follow-on.

When New Zealand went to 149 unbeaten in their second innings after being dismissed for 209 in response to 435 for eight declared, there were English supporters well-versed in the old ways who questioned why Stokes had not taken them out of the game. .

All it would have taken was for England to bat again for two sessions in their usual ultra-aggressive fashion and they would have been over 400 ahead and out of sight of a New Zealand side who were down but not quite by the end of the day. two.

We already know that Stokes and Brendon McCullum don’t want to do it that way. They were perfectly aware that by bowling again they were giving New Zealand their only realistic chance to bail out and square off this series.

England were forced to be patient when they opted to bowl again against New Zealand.

But frankly, that didn’t bother them one bit. They mean it when they say they are prepared to risk losing to put on a show, as they demonstrated in Pakistan, and this was the best way, Stokes reasoned, to keep the game moving and put pressure on the opposition. The plan, assistant coach Paul Collingwood later confirmed, was to win the Test in three days.

“This team’s mantra is to always take an aggressive approach and there was no question in Stokesey’s mind that if we had the opportunity to enforce tracking, that was the way he would do it,” Collingwood said.

“We’ve always said we’re not afraid of losing, but we want to put ourselves in a position to win games and we felt we had a good chance on the conditions of having won or close to winning today.” ‘

Stokes’s logic, to be fair, was sound. Despite Tim Southee having delayed England on the third morning by breaking 73 off 49 balls before Stuart Broad dropped the wickets of the last three first innings, their closers were still fresh and the pitch was unlikely. will deteriorate.

Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ollie Robinson had pitched just 36.2 first innings between them and New Zealand looked demoralized and likely to go down cheap again.

It worked quite like that. Only once since ‘Bazball’ really flared up against these same opponents at Trent Bridge last year have a pair of batsmen kept England quiet for longer than Latham and Conway: Imam-ul-Haq and Abdullah Shafique batted for 65.4 overs. for Pakistan in the first Test at Rawalpindi.

Assistant coach Paul Collingwood confirmed England’s desire to “take an aggressive approach”

Stokes had to try everything he could think of, including bowling for two ill-fated overs, and almost 53 overs had passed before England finally achieved the breakthrough.

It was then that Jack Leach forced Conway, who averaged over a hundred at Basin Reserve before this Test, to deflect the ball onto the platform and saw Ollie Pope take the last in a series of catches near the wicket.

Latham had surpassed 5000 runs in Test cricket making him a true New Zealand great, before trying to sweep Joe Root he missed and was palpably fat, the former England captain was so sure Latham was out which produced one of Broad’s celebrity draws. ‘ before even seeing if referee Chris Gaffaney’s finger was up.

Leach was going to strike again when he converted one past the edge of Will Young’s bat and took the top of the stump to leave New Zealand 167 for three and those wary English doubters resting a little easier.

They extended that to 202 for three at close, now just 24 behind, but England have a new ball on their hands and are still imagining their chances of finishing this on day four.

What should be a bigger concern is the fitness of the captain. It’s one thing for Stokes to continue his ultra-aggressive hitting even though all the evidence suggests he’s not giving himself the best opportunity to contribute big runs with the bat.

Jack Leah (L) celebrates after bowling with Will Young on day three of action in Wellington.

It is quite another to watch him bowl just two overs in which he started with a deflected short ball, was warned twice and called no-ball for bowling to Gaffaney’s excessive rebounds, went over the line and disappeared for 16 before retiring to the gardens. .

Stokes repeatedly insists that his chronic left knee injury is not a problem, but he barely trains between matches and no longer plays in warm-up matches. No doubt he will become a problem in the Ashes build if he seems less and less capable of fulfilling an integral role on his side.

“Look, as we all know, he has a knee problem, but luckily he’s the captain and he decides when he bowls or not,” Collingwood added. “He was trying to break the batsmen’s rhythm with some short stuff, but we got a wicket at the other end, so he changed that plan and went back to conventional bowling.”

Stokes’ captaincy has been truly exceptional and they have hardly given a misstep in leading England’s incredible Test revolution, but with a £1.6m deal to play in the IPL with Chennai after this series and then the Biggest clash of all against the old foe, Stokes’ knee status will remain England’s only elephant in the room.