Gritty Dom Sibley help England secure draw at Lord's as New Zealand pay for lapses in field

Opener Dominic Sibley held one end strongly together behind his strong defence and secured a draw for England in the first Test against New Zealand at Lord’s. 

New Zealand set a tempting target of 273 runs for England to chase in the last two sessions of the fifth and final day, but the hosts shut their shops right from the start. The pair of Sibley and Rory Burns was gritty in their batting to survive the new ball examination by Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson. 

It took New Zealand more than an hour to get the prized wicket of Rory Burns, who received some of the unplayable deliveries but luck did not turn its face on him before he finally edged one off Neil Wagner low to Tim Southee at the second slip.

Tim Southee’s classical Test match bowling of enticing drive through the off side paid a dividend with the wicket of Zak Crawley for the second time in the game. Crawley did not learn hard lessons from his downfall in the first innings and Southee was ecstatic to see him walking back to the pavilion after Henry Nicholls caught him neatly at gully.

The Blackcaps opened one end up but Sibley was resolute in his defence and stamped his class on the proceedings to establish why he is rated so highly in the England camp. He never sucked into driving at one away from the stump while the incoming deliveries were met with a dead bat. He reached his fifty in 161 balls in an attritional innings that did not finish until Kane Williamson and he did not shake hands to end the game in a draw.

Sibley was well supported by Joe Root but the English skipper was gutted at losing out on a big score for twice in the game. He was undone by a jaffa from Wagner as the left-hander brought one back sharply after taking it across for a long time.

The day began on a mixed note as New Zealand adopted a cautious aggressive approach at the start but all hell broke loose when an out of form Ross Taylor decided to give it a whack to set up the game and bring himself back to some sort of rhythm before the second Test and the WTC final against India.

New Zealand did not change their batting order in pursuit of quick runs and instead, the batsmen took the onus on themselves to get the Blackcaps near to a score they could not have lost from. The tourists declared their second innings at the lunch break and asked England to show their appetite for risk on the final day against the bowling attack of Tim Southee, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jamieson.

Devon Conway was adjudged Man of the Match for his imperious double hundred in the first innings of the debut Test at Lord’s.

The second Test of the series will be played at Edgbaston, Birmingham from June 10.