The first day of the second Test between England and New Zealand at Trent Bridge ended up being full of misery for the hosts as they toiled hard on the field with not much success. What added to their frustration was an incredibly rare incident, which saw the ball taking a dip into a spectator’s pint of cider. As a result, England’s bowling for the rest of the day remained toothless, with the ball offering little to no help.
England sent the visitors in to bat after winning the toss but had a hard time picking wickets. They did make a comeback, dismissing two set batters on two separate occasions and reducing NZ to 169/4.
But Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell proved to be a huge thorn for the second time in a row as the pair put on an unbroken stand of 149 runs for the fifth wicket. The Kiwis ended the day in a strong position with the scoreboard reading 318/4.
The biggest talking point of the match occurred in the 57th over of the day, when Mitchell lofted Jack Leach for a huge six over long-on. The ball landed straight into a pint glass of a woman, which created quite a hilarious situation. The umpires tried to dry the ball with towels but opted against changing it.
Jon Lewis, England’s fast bowling coach, blamed the incident as a major reason behind his side’s struggles in the second half of the day.
“I’ve just come back from the dressing room and haven’t spoken to the boys about it. It did swing a little bit less, but it’s just that the ball was really soft, so when the ball goes soft it’s hard to get it past the bat with any pace,”
he said.
NZ batter Devon Conway also thought the ball didn’t swing much after getting wet in cider. He was surprised that the umpires didn’t change the ball, especially with all the Covid-19 protocols in place. Conway also jokingly credited Mitchell for his precise shot to blunt the English bowling attack.
“We were quite shocked that they didn’t change the ball, we’ve all got Covid protocols put in place and thought they might have looked to change it.
Certainly, it didn’t swing as much, so Daryl played a very smart role there to make sure the ball doesn’t swing as much. It was an interesting period and I did see the umpire try to dry it as much as he could with a towel,”
Conway stated.
While English players were more frustrated with the soft cider-ball, Conway found entertainment in the whole incident.
“I must say, Tim Southee did spot it quite well, he called it straight away when it landed in the beer cup, cider cup, whatever it was. It’s funny how it happened and it was good camera work from the cameraman to capture that.”
The Barmy Army reported that the woman spectator was provided another cider glass by the Black Caps. Mitchell met the lady after the day’s play and apologised to her for ruining her drink.
When the day ended, Mitchell was unbeaten on 81 and looking set for a second consecutive Test hundred while Blundell was batting on 67. Unlike the last game, the pair would want to make the most of this partnership and bat England out of the game.
