Test Match Special - England beat Black Caps in bowler's paradise at Lord's

Episode Date: June 7, 2026

Jonathan Agnew is alongside Michael Vaughan and Phil Tufnell for reaction to England's win over New Zealand at Lord's in the first Test of the series.Hear from England captain Ben Stokes, head coach Brendon McCullum, player of the match Ollie Robinson, and New Zealand captain Tom Latham.

You're listening to the TMS podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live. Atkinson moves in. Looking for his five-foot goals here. Middle stump is out of the ground. Atkinson on the honours board again at Lords. Five for 30. England win the test match. They go one-nill up here at Lords. New Zealand all out for 138. Michael Vaughn's alongside me and Phil Tuffner. It's always nice to be down. Actually, he's always rather nice on a Sunday or it's a fourth day to be down. the host but you get a good crowd down here all the spectators gathered around him down

in front of the members right so let's start with you toughers I just just reflecting on that 166 overs the entire match the second shortest Lord's test match ever it's going to be interesting to see what the players say about this just the way that the New Zealanders were kind of not laughing but sort of laughing when they were when they were hit and the ball shooting on the ground and so on It's a bit a strange game. Yeah, well, I've just walked over there and I had a look at it. What do you think? It's a bit grubby, isn't it?

It doesn't look like a cricket pitch to me. No, it doesn't. There's sort of cracks underneath the tufts, and so one hits the tufts and it goes through. The other one hits a crack and does something. It's one of those pitches as a batter you're just, you're never feeling. You always think that there's one round the corner with your name on it.

And that's not really how the game should be played. You should be able to sort of try and get yourself in and then, you know, sort of, you know, express yourself from there. No, it looked a little bit of a crime scene. You know, it's a very odd-looking pitch, Mark. Yeah, Michael, I mean, when you see a pitch, it should be even with its covering. I mean, you know, there could be a tiny little bit of grass on it.

There can be a lot of grass on it, but it's even usually, isn't it? That is just nothing like that. No, I mean, you know, you take your guard, and generally it's about you look down and you go, yeah, I've got a sniff here. I'll have to play well, but you look down at this one. I think it's important. They know that it's a trouble here. They know that they need to do a lot of work to get this square right,

but it's an ugly looking surface. It's been very difficult for the batters, very easy for the bowlers, but you're looking at the fielding aspects of the test match, New Zealand putting a poor performance, and that's probably where they really kind of let themselves down. I think the dismissals and the LBWs and the bowls, a lot of that was down to the pitch. The ball was seeming to hit the surface

and it wasn't just kind of keeping low. It was scooting low quickly. Some of those balls that were hitting the pad for the LBWs, the bat was nowhere near because the ball seemed to gather pace off the surface. So, yeah, it's been a shocker. Again, the NTC will know that. I'm sure that'll instigate some movement

in terms of change. Maybe this week needed to happen for a bit of the... square to be dug up and replaced but we're very intrigued to see what's a picture ride for the Pakistan test match yeah in a in a few months time so that's the question is it is it the whole thing that needs to be dug out or is it just that particular strip that's tired do they get something wrong with the preparation or that very hot weather for those few days and you know there are so many ingredients to

throw in here yeah I mean you go back to the winter you know the two the two test matches globally that I think people look out for the MCG Boxing Day test match and the home of cricket game and you know it's been a really bad look for cricket in general when we've had a game at the MCG finishing two days and a game five months later six months later

finishing what was it 106 or six overs here at the home of cricket so they all know it's been a poor week it's been an embarrassing week for the home of cricket but the most important aspect for the England side they just had to win this week they had to get back on track winning. They've done that. So they've won a test match. The 1-0-0-0 in the series. They'll know. I don't think we can take a great deal from the performance in terms of this

reset. I don't know what you can take from a pitch like that, but what you can take is they've won. They've won the key moments at the right times and they now move on to the next test 1-0-0. Yeah. Tom Latham is within earshot. I just wonder if he might pop over in a second because there's a little bit of a hold-up, I think, for the presentation. so let's just see how we're going to do this here it's all a little bit come on Tom let's deal with me for now thank you good to see you what a strange game let's looking at that's the second shortest test match ever played here I think we know why have you got any thoughts on the on the

surface I don't want to get you into trouble yeah look I think obviously it's a surface that we probably weren't expecting I don't think anyone was expecting that but I think if you look at it, there was two highly talented bowling attacks that explored those conditions tremendously well. And I guess if you look at throughout the test match, we had our opportunities as well from a fielding point of view. And we weren't able to capitalize. And I spoke before the test saying, you know, these games, there will be small moments that you need to take. And unfortunately, we didn't take a couple of those opportunities, which may be different in the end. But, yeah, it's obviously not ideal.

But it is what it is. we're both faced with the same conditions. It just looks odd, do you think? Yeah, to be honest, looking at it, I didn't, again, didn't necessarily expect it to play like that. It looked okay. But, yeah, I guess it's one of those things when you're getting those situation,

you've got to try muck in and scrap for every run or every wicket. And as I said, I think both bowling attacks were able to, I guess, exploit the conditions, you know, tremendously well, both England and us. So, yeah, it's obviously not ideal, but yeah we obviously switch our focus quickly to you know to the oval test which is obviously an extra day off now yeah and you mentioned I mean four catches and they're not necessarily

hard ones either they were big moments weren't they yeah you're right and you know when you're playing a quality team like England sometimes those moments you know can can emulate and I guess a low scoring affair from a from a run's point of view then you know sometimes that that can make the difference so you know yes we had our opportunities and just weren't able to take them one of those games for you if the umpires calls as well I mean two of those in an OVA you can sort of feel that that's another set back in

I don't want to get you into trouble Tom but you can't help but notice those moments that could have gone the other way yeah I guess throughout you know test matches you know sometimes they swing your way and sometimes they don't and that's just the I guess the nature of the sport we play and that's you know down to

umpire's decision which is you know part of the game we play so I think it's important that we don't kind delve too much into this game. You know, we understand that we go to the Oval and conditions will be, you know, a lot better than what they have been here. So, you know, for us, it's about trusting

the work that we're put in, you know, trusting where our games are at and hopefully we can take a bit of confidence, you know, from what we've been building over the last couple of weeks. And as I said, try not to look into this one too much. Thanks for talking to us, Tom. Appreciate it.

Thank you very. See at the Oval. There we go. Well, that's a very flagmatic view, isn't it? From New Zealand's captain, you know, just kind of put this game away and look forward to the next one. It's like toughers.

Yeah, and just sort of move on, really toughers. Who have we got? Oh, we've got, well, Ben Stokes is coming out. I don't think I'm interviewing him first. I think we might be getting Brendan McCullum in a moment. We'll see, but we've got Olli Robinson, who is clearly the man of the match too, so that's great. A nice return for him.

And let's just see what happens here. Again, it's all part of the fun of being down. He never quite know what's going to, what's going to, what's going to happen. What I can say tough is there'll be rather more cheerful interviews I hope than the last ones we have with these two. Well absolutely and as Mike said you know what it was all about here was just getting off to a winning start. It could have uh, listen it could have gone either way when you play on a pitch like that and a surface like that you've got to have a little bit of luck and ride your luck a little bit

but uh yeah England will be delighted to get off to a winning start for the summer. Right here's England's coach and a hopefully more cheerful interview than No last one, perhaps at the end of all that. I mean, how do you reflect on this game for a start? I was just saying to Tom Latham there, that's the second shortest completed test match ever on this ground. And I'll say again, I know you're bound by rules and regulations. I don't get into trouble, but what did you make of that surface?

Look, it was challenging. I'm not sure you'd want to play on it every week, but I sort of take a slightly different view of it. I think the beauty of test cricket is that you have contrasting conditions, contrasting challenges and you've got to find ways to be able to adapt and to be able to ultimately be successful on them. And I think the good thing from our point of view is I felt like when you're going to be involved in a low scoring shootout, you need to make sure executioners bang on because if you

let the game drift for a period of time, that's going to be enough for you to end up on the wrong side. But I thought our execution with the ball was outstanding. I thought our plans were great. We were able to be able to bring in to play the very lengths that we need to be able to to hit on that surface and with the bat, I thought we're brave at times and we were calculated at other times. For me, like bravery can often be slightly misunderstood.

Bravely is not always just running down the wicket and trying to bang it into the stands. Bravery is about being able to manipulate your stance at the crease to be able to give the bowl with something different, to be able to find a way to get off strike and manufacture ones. And I thought, albeit batting conditions, really difficult, I thought our boys did a good job with that. Yeah, absolutely. Were you surprising or were you surprised that New Zealand didn't perhaps come at you a bit today

and I don't know, try and play in England's manner and try and knock the bowls off their length a bit? Not really their style to be honestly. They're really authentic with how they go about their game. They're a team that does things really well for a long period of time and they've had a lot of success doing that over the last decade or so. So I didn't really expect them to do much different. I think from their point of view it felt as if they were trying to get it into a pressure situation, get as close to the target as they could and hope that we felt.

pressure and thankfully we were able to get enough wickets early on to negate that. Ollie Robinson then, I mean back in the side, we know the story and he has had some nice conditions but it was good to see him bowling without familiar rhythm again. Yeah, he was brilliant. I mean, he was so nervous, right? He mentioned before he bowled in that first inning so it was more nervous than he'd been than he was on his debut. And for us, I guess we're just trying to zero him back in on the plans and what the focus was and for him it was just trying to hit a natural length right his natural length was

going to be successful on the surface and you didn't need genuine air speed on this on this pitch you needed relentlessness of your accuracy and being able to get the ball to seam and you know from from his height and what with his skills he was always going to be a handful and I absolutely delighted for him to come back in and to do what he did it takes tough character to be able to do that after being out of the side for a while so I'm really pleased for him yeah Emilio Gay, well, I heard his interview the other day. I mean, what a delight. Someone who's just, I don't know,

he'd seem to be thrilled to be playing, as reveling in the whole thing. And it has a lovely inning from him, too. He hasn't sat through too many bad interviews. Not that. I mean, he's got genuine enthusiasm and passion for the game, as to all the other lads as well. I was really impressed by Emilio.

The thing about him is, just you do you, mate. You're a run scorer. You've got a different method and a different way of doing things. in a low-scoring game, the contribution that he made was substantial. So, look, he's loved the week, absolutely love the week. He's quite an emotional guy, and to be able to day build at lords and to have some success in playing a team that's one of a test match,

you'll remember for the rest of his life. We've seen some signs that he can certainly operate at this level, and we look forward to seeing him develop. Just last one looking ahead, Baz, have you thought about the Oval at all? I mean, bowling-wise, is Joffre Archer going to be back? He's going to be up for consideration? Yeah, we'll let this one land, I think, and then we'll start, you know, we've got quite a decent break between now and joining up for the next one.

So we'll let this one land, make sure we enjoy it. Cricket's a tough game, right? Sometimes you're having to wear a few blows on. Ups and downs, sir. Yeah, yeah, up and down, Zach. But not that pitch. For this one, we'll just, we'll let it land and let boys enjoy this, and then we'll start plodding and planning our way forward.

I hope you enjoy it too. Thanks to talk, just, Baz. There we go. Cheers. There we are. Nice to see the England coach smiling during an interview. It's been pretty tough the last few months And that's more like it

Yeah, and I love it When I hear the coach say enjoy it You know, the players had a tough winter It's not been easy And when you win a test match Even it's a bit of a lottery Of a test match this week because of their surface You have to make sure you enjoy

Particularly when you've got quite a few days Till the next Next one they'll enjoy tonight And then they'll regroup and they'll know that At the Oval it'll be a different Kind of wiki, it'll be a different week Maybe more of a challenge And, you know, with New Zealand, they'll come back.

You know, they'll a very professional unit, very professional side. And, you know, New Zealand, I'm pretty sure we'll put in a better display in a week and a half time. In England, just after up the game once again, which is a good sign. The most important aspect for Baz McCullum, for Ben Stokes, and all the team, was to just win this week. Now, they had to get that victory at 1.40 all out, I guess. It was starting to get a bit messy again because everything was about the winter. So it's just important that they got the win. podcast from BBC Radio 5 Live.

Right, here we go. Well, I saw you at the start of the game. Wish you good luck. I didn't think I'll be interviewing at the end as man of the match. O'ley, what a, what a return. Yeah, a pretty special week. Hard to put into words how amazing that first over was. The crowd were just epic, and I couldn't really feel my body, to be honest.

When I was bowling, I was just trying to land the ball in a place running. and luckily it went well for me. But yeah, such an incredible week. First one of the summer. Hopefully we can continue that going forward. That first over. I mean, you can't possibly even dream up a start like that. No, I've never done it before in my career.

I'm not sure if I will again either. It's just one of those sessions, I guess, where everything was in our favour as the bowling group. We came out with 25 overs to go. Obviously, a brand new ball. We had the advantage of seeing them bowl as well, which I think was quite big because we saw that

what we've seen was working better than swing we saw the Yatsboe at the stumps and it wasn't a channel sort of wicket so we had an advantage there and I think we stuck to that

through the whole game and that stood us in good stead and obviously a few great knocks from rookie and Emilio Gai on debut got us ahead in the game because I think 180,200 was probably

a par on that pitch Brendan said that you said to him that you're more nervous even than your debut coming back. Yeah, it's been a while out from playing for England and the day before I said to a couple of the guys that most nervous I've been before a test match and even on the morning of I was so anxious just coming into the ground.

It's exciting but nerves I've not had before and I wasn't sure how to handle but once the toss went up and we were batting they calmed a little bit and then when we got to bowling again the heart rate was through the roof and I was just trying to take deep rest, control the emotions and stick to what I know I can do and luckily it was my week. I had a few decisions decisions go my way as well if you're on pie schools which always help. Part of the game. Exactly, yeah, but no, it's just great to be back. Did you feel you have something to prove?

I mean, there's two years, quite a lot said, fitness and all those things, you know it all. Did you feel that you really had something there for that you had to prove? That put a bit of extra pressure on you? I mean, there's always added pressure coming back into playing for England and you've got guys saying that you're a world-class bowler, obviously, before the test match. And you do have a level of expectation, I suppose, coming. in that you have to perform to that to keep your spot I suppose but I know what I think I'm 32 now I know what I'm good at I've done it for a long time has captaincy helped captaincy definitely helped looking after other guys looking after the youngsters at sussex and even when

I wasn't bowling here in this game I felt like I was more involved in the game and trying to look after the bowlers and help Stokesy I think that's just where I've grown as a person and as a cricketer and I think that's definitely helped me bowling as well just being present and being the game as much as possible. And yeah, I know it's something at the start. It's only one game. And I really want to make sure that my career with England is a lot longer than the last time.

I know there's a lot of hard work to do, but I'm ready to do it. Enjoy it. Nice to see you, Ollie. Well done. Congratulations. Ollie Robinson, the man in the match has got a very nice magna of champagne there. He's got a big medal around his neck. And well, well deserved. Fabulous.

And again, a very honest, a honest conversation there with him. Yeah, I mean, you just get the feeling. don't you that he's sort of not grown up a bit but you know what I mean that couple of years out you know you sort of evaluate things in your life don't you

and your cricket career sometimes you can want it too much can't you and it can get a bit carried away with things you might say the odd wrong thing as well and everything like that he just seems like he's like well I'm back I'm going to enjoy it and go out go out bowl and run around and have a lovely time

without too much pressure on myself so listen what a wonderful wonderful picks to make you come back on You know, going to be slightly different at the Oval, that's for sure. But, yeah, enjoy it, love it, you know, man on a match. What an occasion, Lord's Test match, you know, wonderful. I'm really happy for him. Yeah, a level of honesty there, Michael.

I thought on all sorts of fronts, even down to the, you know, unpassed calls going by the way. But actually analysing his game and himself, very honestly. Yeah, I mean, I think he's obviously had a good week on the field, but I've actually loved the way that he's spoken all week. He's given a couple of just normal interviews. That's what you want from the player. And I do think you're asking them a really good question about the captaincy. I think sometimes when you're just to play,

you don't really appreciate how much work some captains have to do. But you also appreciate what's going through other people's minds as well, because you have to look after. He said he looked after a few of the younger players at Sussex, and he's probably thought, oh, yeah, that's probably what I need to do in terms of myself, look after myself a little bit more. And that's what I saw this week. Look, he's going to get challenged in the next few months.

it's not going to be like this every week. It's not going to be that the ball's just nipping off a length. And I've always known with Olly Robinson, if there's a pitch with a bit of movement in it, he'll find it. I think in time when we get a week where, you know, the field, you're out there for a period of time, and you come back for your second spell and your third spell,

that's when we'll see the fitness element of Olly Robinson. There's never been a doubt in terms of his skill. No, definitely. You know, his test record is exceptionally. His average is exceptional. Now England have got a work in. He's got to work himself to make sure that in a year's time when the ashes are around and in South Africa in the winter, he wants to be the opening the bowl, he wants to be the

tone set of ring. We lacked it in the winter. We really lacked that first couple of overs, apart from Perth, you know, in the first thing, pretty much after that, Australia was off to a flying start. With Ollie Robinson, you would think you'd at least get control with the new ball and that's going to be crucial for England. Yeah, yeah. Ben Stokes is giving an interview at the moment on the telly and we'll be talking to him

in a few moments time. Talk about his batting again today in the press, isn't there? I don't know if you've caught up with the newspapers yet this morning, Mike. You know, talking about him just not looking like his old self, really. No, I mean, he seems to have a habit

at the minute. I might not ask him that, by the way, yeah. No, no, good look. Make that your last question, if I was you. He seems to have a habit of looking down at the pitch a lot. You know, he's done it against Mitchell Stark a lot in the winter.

Yes, the ball's moving. I thought in the second innings he was bowed by ball just a little bit. And I reckon if Ben's really honestly, if he stares at the ball really closely, I think he gets a little bit of bat on that. When he's playing well,

he should be able to nullify that delivery. Clearly, he'll be trying very, very hard. I just wonder sometimes with Ben whether he's thinking too much technique rather than being a little bit more aggressive and freeing himself up to hit the ball and try and just look at the scoreboard and get runs.

Don't worry about survival. He looks to me like he's always working technically in his game and you know he's such a wonderful player and he's just that one innings away I mean he got 100 against India last year at Old Shafford in the winter he had a couple of knocks which were very kind of almost turgid

the way that he batted in Australia at times he's better than that and I think Bennett is best is a more aggressive player and I think that would be one way of just staring at the ball a little bit closely to hit it you know try and score them might just trigger him into getting in better positions and surviving against the ball

that just does a little bit it's often said down in fill of my part of the batting order that if you put down at number 11 you bat like a number 11 is there any danger that going down to number 7 kind of changes the way that he might view his own batting for a start yeah well I hope not but I guess you know what I don't mean yeah no no I get that yeah I mean I've never batted down there so I honestly wouldn't matter

it's quite fun down where it's it tough as you're all right I think he just needs to get a little bit more sort of fun back in his batting you're right like you know he's sort of he's walking out there with batting hand looking like it's what a little bit of the world on his shoulders a little bit you know the ben stokes that we love to watch is free isn't he? yes he's walking and looking at the hill fingers you know over mid off and sort of hooks and pulls and all this kind of stuff just get a little bit more fun in it i mean perhaps that's a little bit of a pressure of the captaincy that uh you know Australia and things like that but uh you know you've got to play this game i know it's difficult sometimes but you've got to

try and play this game with a smile on your face because it'll help your performance. Yeah, I just wonder whether, I mean, we've obviously criticised at times the Basball method, but I think if there was one player that I'd be saying to play that way, could be the captain? Mike just asked him a question about his batting, he got a short one.

I think I'm like a short husband. I was just listening to it. Right, here's the captain with a smile on his face, which is good to see. Well, you came and you did it then. A good win. Yeah, very good start to the summer. That was obviously on the back of

a long time in between, been test matches for us. There was a lot of, oh, you know, there would have been a few nerves, few anxious feelings and emotions going into that. But yeah, when you get over that line and day one starts, you sort of forget about all that. And again, we didn't know what we were going to be presented with.

And I thought we were very quick to identify what the conditions were going to be like. And that's what you got to do. You've got to play what's in front of year. You've got to identify the conditions as a team and understand what you think is a better. way for you to go out there and win and yeah we did that better than New Zealand this week yes you did and and although it being difficult is it important

you still look you have you have a positive mindset to playing on a difficult pitch rather thinking oh this is horrible it's terrible and you know just you know not you don't mean you know have a positive way of playing on it yeah well it's test cricket and it's tough that's why it's called test cricket and you know you don't rock up and expect everything to be in your favour is about everything to be in your favour is a bowler and So, you know, that's the beauty of it. You never know what you're going to get.

So you've got to act on your feet quickly. You've got to understand what you need to do as a bowling group, as a batting group, to try and give yourself the best chance at winning a test match. And again, you know, we did that really well as a team, and we did that very quickly as well. Obviously, the game was in pretty fast forward throughout the whole time that it was played out there. And, yeah, I was real happy with the way that we just stuck to our plans. We didn't differ from it.

And I think that considering everything was good, coming into this game, I love the levelness of emotions once we got out to the field and once the game started, even at the end of day's play when it had gone good or when we went through a spell, like when we lost four wickets for no runs, just the calmness that was still in the dressing room there because we knew that we were still in a very strong position, but we knew that we still had a lot of hard work to do to get us even further ahead of the game than we already were. So yeah, overall, from an on-field perspective and an off-field perspective, it's been a great week for the team starting off.

Yeah, indeed. I'm not going to get into trouble here, but that's the second shortest completed test match ever at Lords, 160 over as well or less. Have you got anything to say about the surface? It's been talked about a lot. Yeah, look, I think there's two sides to it. For me, it's, again, test cricket, it's tough, it presents its challenges, and when you get something like that, again, you need to go away as a team and go, right, okay, this is what it is. We've got to do this. This is what's in front of us. How are we going to take this on to give ourselves? that was the best chance of winning and we did that. I get asked a lot about the future of test cricket. I get asked a lot about what do we need to do to keep it growing? What do we need to do to keep it, you know, such a strong format in the future? And the only thing that I would say is that from someone who loves the format

and someone who knows and understands that we need people coming and watching test cricket still, it's played over five days. That wicket there, if you get tickets on day one to that, you would have absolutely had a great time. It was wickets going everywhere. There was, you know, balls flying off everywhere because that's how the batsman sort of decided the best way to score runs. But that's the other side of it, you know, like,

it's rain we got to day fourth, but if there wasn't any rain, the games went end early. Like, is that what we want to be doing? You know, sort of want to find somewhere in the middle. You know, we play here a lot, and we've had games play like this. We've had games go to day five where it's been tough, slow and tertiary,

but there's been a result. Finding somewhere in the middle, middle, maybe, I don't know. I don't know, I don't know. You don't want a road either. No, you don't want that. Again, it's so tough to say, you know, like, and it's not like people, you know, they're trying the hardest to produce good wickets and, you know, to produce something

that's going to be entertaining for everyone to come and watch and make it go long. But that's where I come from it. That doesn't take anything away from the way that we had to operate this week. We've come here, we played a game and a style of, and a brand of cricket that allowed us to be successful in these conditions. We might turn up next week and it'd be completely different, and then we have to do something there but again for someone who's loves test cricket my one thing about that is I just say is that something that will benefit test cricket going forward I don't think so but no one's doing it on

purpose it's a very tough job to be a groundsman I will give them that but um yeah it shouldn't take away from the fact that we've won a test match in no right but it doesn't same same for both sides man last word Ollie Robinson he came here with a lot to prove and well what's a dream for him Yeah, unbelievable. A long time out of the game and fully, you know, he's deserved as recall. I thought, it was interesting because he sort of look at, although Olli and Gus has been around for a lot, we do have quite a lot of an experience in terms of, you know, test match exposure. So it was almost like I had two leaders this week in Olly Rob and Gus Atkinson, but Gus has still the start of his career. Ollie Rob's been out for two years and coming back.

So it was, yeah, it was bizarre. But, yeah, Ollie's great. That would have been a tough week for him, emotion, everything like that. And he was emotional there when he took, he clicked as a man in the match award. But what we've seen on day one with the ball is exactly what we know Ollie can do.

And for him, it's great to hear him know that it's just to start. He's got a lot more hard work to do. And obviously, I think for English cricket, the more games that he plays for us, the better, because he's a fantastic bowler. Nice one, Ben. Nice to see you.

Thank you. Thank you, Danny. We'll see you at the Oval. Cheers, Ben. Right, there we go. Lots, lots there. Interesting as comments about the pitch, you know. Very chatty, weren't that? Yes, you were. Very chatty. It's nice. Nice off to fit.

Well, definitely. It just shows what a win can do, isn't it? But interesting comments about the pitch, I thought, you know, he does love test cricket and he wants Test cricket to thrive. You know, he just sort of said, you know, that's probably not the way that it's going to happen. Well, it's certainly not an argument for five days. test match cricket when you've got a pitch that obviously has ended in 166 overs. So yeah we had one over from spin.

No. There wasn't an over from spin at the MCG either. No. And the boxing day test, there's only a few overs of spin in Perth. So inside the last six England test matches we've had 50% of the test that has involved no spin. That's not good for the game, it's not good for the product and you know, he was right in saying England found a way and that's what this team has got to get better at. On a given week you're going to have to change your style,

you're going to have to change your approach. This week was an approach which needed to be a bit more aggressive because the pitch determined. I actually thought on day one they played two conventionally. I thought earlier that they could have gone a bit more basball like but they were never going to do that at the first time. They're shouting, we can't win. We can't please everybody. For this team to be a real high quality side, that's what they're going to have to assess and do and you know the oval in a week and a half time might be a week where you just have to bat a long period of time. And that's, you know, what they've got to get better at understanding as a group

is to read the situation this week. They read it nicely. Yeah, they did, they did. And it's same for both sides, after all. Right, we're going to start wandering back. Andy Zaltzman, what stats have you got? I've been putting around the one about the second shortest test match ever here at Lords. Thanks for that one.

That was one of yours. What else have you dug out with this rather strange game? Well, yes, not only the second shortest at Lord's, the eighth shortest ever in England, the 25th shortest anywhere in the world. And England have been involved in three of that top 25 within their last six test, the Perth and Melbourne test in the ashes. I think we're both top 10 and this also one of the shortest ever played. To put that in context, there were no test matches below 1,000 balls.

This was 996. There were no test below 1,000 balls anywhere in the world between 1946 and 1995. So that shows you a lot about the trends in modern, modern test cricket. But this was very different to those games in Australia, where we saw a lot of wickets falling to attacking shots. In this test, 26 wickets fell to defensive shots or no shots. And that's the most in the CrickViz database. This data goes back over 20 years. So any test, anywhere in the world, over 800 matches, there's never been more wickets fall to batters trying to defend.

This wasn't, you know, one of the games we saw with the sort of wickets falling and sort of flaying bats and high-risk shots. And that tells you a lot about how difficult this pitch was. This is players getting out trying to defend. New Zealand faced just 70.2 over, so that's the fewest balls they've ever faced in a test in which they've been bowled out in both innings. And it's the fourth fewest balls England have taken out, taken to bowl their opponents out since 1904. So very much a bowler's game, a wicket every 25 balls, the seventh lowest such figure ever in a test match anywhere in the third lowest in a test in England. Those bowls in LBWs, the final count, 24, which is the most ever in a test in England.

And again, that says a lot about the pitch that the uncertain footwork when the players couldn't trust either the lateral bounce or the vertical bounce. 13 bold, 11 LBW. the first team in England to have 14 players dismissed bold and LBW in a single test in England since 1952. So it's yeah it's been a brutally tough game for for the for the batting teams. No spin as you mentioned the first time there's been no spin in a test in England since 1988 and only the third time ever. But there were four five wicket halls from different bowlers and it's only the third test in England that has had a five wicket hall from a different bowler. in each of the four innings of the test.

So definitely a test match for the bowlers rather than the batters. Thank you, Andy. Very much indeed. The test will leave it. You can watch the highlights. BBC 2, BBC I player from 7 o'clock tonight. Go to BBC Sounds for our TMS podcast.

There's lots to enjoy there. Including that view from the boundary yesterday with Richard Moore, the head of the head of MI6, the former head of MI6 anyway. Our coverage of the opening match of the ICC Women's T-20, World Cup starts at 6 o'clock on Friday.

It's England against Sri Lanka. And then the second test in this series begins a week on Wednesday, of course. So much sport today and all the goals as they go in, up and down the league. This is five live sports. It's all eight of the lights. It's not to stop out.

Everyone standing around the 18th green. Overhead off. He shows to the centre. Life sport. The home of the world's greatest sports. events. Listen on BBC Sounds.