England v New Zealand, Third Test, Day Three
Featuring overnight overconfidence and anagrams
Overnight Overconfidence
Grade: D
England began the third day seemingly on top - sure, still technically more than 200 runs behind New Zealand, but only two wickets down.
Their fans wouldn’t have been so cocky, though, had they done what the visitors did on day one, and lost two set batters off the final two balls before stumps. And, as if to hammer home this fact, both Joe Root and Jacob Bethell were dismissed without adding any further runs to their overnight score, instigating dressing room panic.
Such was the turnaround that you might almost be willing to suggest that England would have been better off to have more closely followed New Zealand’s lead and have those two wickets fall at the end of the previous day’s play. That would have helped avoid any sense of overconfidence in the camp or among their supporters and allowed a proper calibration of their prospects before the day’s play began, rather than have it be sprung unexpectedly on everybody first thing in the morning while people were still searching through the paper for the cryptic crossword.
Furthermore, if you are willing to make that argument, you have to sadly accept that fact that, once again, England have been let down by a couple of their players being out late.
