ENG vs NZ | What Plagued the English Bowlers?
The bowling effort of the team in the first ODI will be an area of concern for the English ODI skipper (Source: Twitter)
The first ODI between England and New Zealand turned out to be a one sided bout where the Kiwis beat the hosts by 8 wickets. The target of 292 set by England seemed to be a defendable total. With great knocks from Malan, Stokes, Buttler and Livingstone England were confident to defend the total boasting of a good bowling attack. However it was the Conway and Mitchell show that ruined the hopes of an England win.
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None of the English bowlers looked threatening against this pair as they put together 180 runs for the third wicket in just 152 deliveries. Both the Batsmen went on to score match winning centuries and finished the game in 45.4 overs. All the England bowlers struggled to bowl consistently on a good line and length which they are known for in the past. This underwhelming performance is disappointing for a team who are current world champions in all white ball formats.
Bowling Blues: England's Struggle on the Pitch
England's Bowling Figures against Daryl-Conway Partnership
The England bowlers had an off day in the match where most of them had an economy rate above 6 runs per over. Their plans to the two centurions were not up to the mark. David Willey did play a great cameo with the bat but couldn’t emulate the same with the ball. Although he was not really attacked by Mitchell, he was struggling against Conway who scored 16 runs off him that included 3 fours.
Gus Atkinson who has shown a lot of potential in the T20 leagues also struggled with his line and length. He was easily picked for runs from Conway(13) and gave enough freebies to Mitchell who got 20 runs off him that included a four and a six. Both spells of Reece Topley were really poor. His spell against Conway and Mitchell was forgettable as well where he was completely dominated by Conway against whom he conceded 20 runs which included four boundaries.
The only bowler who looked perfect on the day was Chris Woakes who was the only bowler who showed great discipline and consistency conceding only 9 runs to Mitchell and 11 runs to Conway. The spinners were attacked ruthlessly on a flat wicket at cardiff where Rashid was taken apart by Daryl Mitchell for 46 runs consisting of 4 fours and four sixes and 20 runs by Conway. The introduction of Livingstone and Root also faced the same consequences. All the spinners were bowling in the slot making it easier for both these batters to counter attack.
Conclusion
The England bowlers in this game are known to bowl with great discipline with a consistent line and length. This was completely missing in this encounter with a lot of short pitch bowling and overpitched half volleys. Even a spinner like Adil Rashid who has proven to be a reliable leg spinner in white ball cricket was struggling to find his line and length. Even the handy part time options of Livingstone and Root were taken apart easily due to the predictable line and length which the Kiwi batters were attacking easily.
Overall it is safe to say that the English bowlers failed by not following the basics of keeping a consistent line and length. This led to conceding a lot of boundaries which cost them the game. Even though there are not a lot of positives in this game this will still be a great learning curve for this relatively young and fresh bowling attack.
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