Tell us a bit about Flem.

Um, yeah.

Look, I mean, he was, he was my captain through from I think when Leigh JMont, uh, lost the job, '97.

Flem took over.

Still relatively young at, at that stage.

But I mean, you guys would've played, uh, that series, uh, in New Zealand.

And then again, uh, I think, Nass, you played the, the series in England, uh, post that.

Or will he have to bring in people that are more technical coaches?

[laughs]

Hope it's okay.

"As the morning sun shone over NW8, history beckoned for these women and those who came through the gate." The celebration of women's cricket highlighted the start of the day, and as the coin went up, it fell England's way.

A couple of early wickets for England, but not consistently the right line.

It was then time for Jemimah and Smriti to shine.

50 for the skipper and Deepti in full flow, the innings eventually wrapped up with 40 minutes to go.

So 285 looked a pretty good start, and even better for India when Beaumont had to depart.

[laughs]

That decision, w- was it vindicated by what we saw in that first session from England this morning?

Well, I, I think it would've been vindicated had they bowled better.

Uh, I don't think they used the conditions well enough.

And, um, you know, I, I thought ...

We talked at the pitch report, Butch.

I, I felt there was gonna be seam, and there might be spin as well because of the tufty nature of the grass.

We talked about Shane Warne's great quote, "If it's, uh, seams, it spins." A- and I don't think England utilized the conditions well enough early enough.

[laughs]

It didn't, and England have won.

[laughs] Does that, does that mean that it doesn't help New Zealand in the sense of getting ready for the next test at the Oval? If they'd gone out there and been a little bit more proactive and maybe potentially got a little bit closer, does it sort of put England on the back foot a little bit more? Whereas now they're just sort of, "Well, we've won that reasonably comfortably."

[laughs]

And, and it's only been the fourth day.

We lost a whole day to rain.

And it has been thoroughly entertaining, and I hazard a guess that, uh, both these teams will be entertaining at The Oval next week as well.

That's the end for The Daily Review.

We'll catch you over the river next week.

Um, [laughs] is, is, is that New Zealanders, um, in a nutshell or, or, or is was that just him in particular?

I think it's probably New Zealanders in a nutshell, [laughs] to be honest.

Um, you know, much, uh ...

W- we'll hear a lot more about Ben Stokes in the next sort of few weeks, I guess, and when he talks about why.

He, he said he would leave that till well afterwards.

But Kane was, uh, I believe, just sitting on the balcony after he got out, looking around thinking, "You know what? This team is in a good spot.

It's in a good place for me to leave.

Yeah.

Yeah.

The only six balls over the wicket to Jacob Bethel.

We, we know that we've highlighted a couple of little technical things with Jacob that, you know, without playing so much four-day cricket lately, he might have just forgotten how to move his feet a touch here and there.

But I still love that over the wicket angle now and then.

I don't...

You don't have to go to it all the time, but you've got to get in that- ... zone where it's a little bit uncertain.

And he just wafted at one, it touched wide.

No

Really bad toss to lose, but my goodness, New Zealand play well.

Made them pay.

And, uh, two guys who had sort of struggled.

I know Conway got, what, 41 at Lord's in that second inning.

Still looked a bit scratchy, but, uh, yeah, they, they made them pay to a, a magnificent partnership.

And when you win the toss and bat first, exactly what you want.

They hadn't scored many runs through the, through the series, Latham or Conway.

And, and perhaps a problem for England, despite having Archer and Atkinson back with a new ball, um, and Tongue and Stokes in the attack as well, was the fact that Shoaib Bashir just could not find a, a, a length in order to, to, to, to slow things up, hold the game so that he could rotate the seamers at the other end.

[laughs]

Yeah.

My, my point is around, yes, Jofra's getting paid at the time, and, and look, he's not the only one.

It just happened to be the big top of conversation at the time.

But his...

W- where does he consider his main employer? A- and for me, that is the ECB.

Now, since 2019 World Cup, he's played, I think just under 30% of all games for England, uh, since the 2019 World Cup.

Y- you know, that seems odd to me, um, relative to your peers, I suppose.

How good a performance was that?

Superb.

Absolutely superb.

And we, we threw his numbers up p- prior to play today, in his last 19 Test matches he's, he's now, well, he's close to 100 wickets now in his last, uh, 19, 20 Test matches, at an average of, uh, 19 or 20.

And it, it's just that line, that length, the, the nagging area that he bowls, good areas, uh, the- it's just one of those things that epitomizes Matt Henry, and he's not a genuine swing bowler.

He is just a hit the seam bowler, and it'll do something.

Mm.

So that, that's what's created the, the confusion a- around it and, and that's what they'll have to get over.

Jofra Archer, was it, gentlemen, that he needed a little bit of bowling, say the first innings, uh, and a little bit of the second to find the sort of rhythm that he needs after his long spell at the IPL?

Maybe it was.

Uh, I was really impressed with him this morning.

A- and it, for all intents and purposes, he could, could be tired, and he could be forgiven for being a bit tired, having not bowled more than four overs in a game for quite some time.

But the buildup, what we saw in the first innings to what we saw, I think, this morning was exceptional.

It hit the ground running.

He had a good warmup.

Mm

Tactically, Douly?

Uh, technically quite poor.

I thought that, uh, just there was one method of trying to get the batters out, which didn't seem the best plan with a brand-new ball available as well.

I mean, tactically not seeing Jofra Archer early on.

I thought, you know, the conversation prior to today's play should have been, "Jofra, we need you to bowl that one over before the new ball, and then we need you to bowl three overs.

A- and if you get one, you'll get two-

O'Rourke from the pavilion end, Smith from the Vauxhall end, and it looked like a different game and a different pitch all of a sudden.

Yeah.

But the impact he makes, his average is ridiculous for, you know, 21 tests into a career.

Yeah, and, and I think we talk a lot about bowling over top of that front leg.

He's, he's a tall man.

He's 6'4", 6 foot maybe 5.

Um, so he gets over top of that front foot nicely, causes a little bit of problem with bounce, and, and when he's operating at his optimum, which is only that 83, 84 mile an hour mark, it does enough because of that steepening bounce, 'cause of his use of the seam.

Uh, he can swing the ball away.

He's got the ability to nip the ball back into the right-handers, which has caused issues, so he exposes inside and outside edge of the bat.

Yeah.

45

...

he was dropped on 45.

So y- you take that catch on eight, I know it was a tough one.

The second one though I think was a pretty easy catch to Rachin Ravindra.

But Conway will be feeling that a little bit.

Uh, they could have had England all out for around 80, 85, which in the context of where we sit now, might have been, [laughs] uh, a little better.

[laughs]

... then they became dominant.

Then they became dominant post that, because I think they needed that win.

So I think after about 18 months he had...

Well, I mean, he probably had the dressing room straight away, but he had everybody believing that was how England needed to play.

But from that point on, they then needed some actual coaching and some ability to continue down the path that they were looking to go down, but with a semblance of cricket a- and cricket smarts.

And I think that was probably one of the biggest issues, wasn't it? The, the, just the lack of cricket smarts.

They've got the shots, they've got all the ability in the world and, and the players haven't changed much, but it's just how they were going about getting out and, and at the times, and the, the way they were getting out.

What do New Zealand do to make sure that they are ready when, when country calls?