England survive 60 minutes of mayhem

Astle tries to atone for costly slip with fastest ever double century to give tourists a mighty scare

England outplayed New Zealand for all but an hour of this Test to go 1-0 up in the series, but it will be that 60 minutes, when Nathan Astle laid waste to England's attack to score the fastest double century of all time, that may yet have the greatest bearing on how this three-match series ends.

Nasser Hussain's team will deservedly take great pride in winning the match, but when your best bowlers are treated like golf balls at a driving range, a gnawing fallibility works its way in. If he is doing his job, the England captain will rationalise that this was a freak of nature borne of a hopeless situation, and tell his bowlers to put it behind them.

But bowlers, especially fast ones, have macho egos and neither Matthew Hoggard (whose first two overs with the new ball cost 41 runs) and Andy Caddick (who went for 25 in an over) will get over the carnage visited upon them easily, especially when Astle wanders out to bat. Hussain knew as much too, and it was significant that he quickly replaced Caddick with Ashley Giles before the scarring went too deep.

"It was just one of those days, when everything was in the slot and everything went to the boundary," explained Astle afterwards. "I was frustrated at dropping Graham Thorpe second ball the previous day, as that was the turning point of the game. I suppose in some ways, I tried to make up for that."

As a spectacle, the knock was unique, as indeed was much in this match. Indeed, some of the biggest names of Test cricket were present at Lancaster Park yesterday and none could recall an innings where the ball was struck so cleanly, so often. In particular, his treatment of the second new ball was savage and three shiny Kookaburras had to be used after he twice lost the original clouting Andy Caddick on to the stadium roof for six.

These were immense blows that carried well over a hundred yards. Although the boundaries for this match were no more than 65 yards, most of Astle's 11 sixes cleared the ropes by 30-40 yards. With no hyperbole hyperbolic enough really to do it justice, the bald facts were that Astle, a player of medium build but supersonic bat speed, took 153 balls to reach 200, striking nine sixes and 27 fours. In doing so, he hewed a dinosaur-size chunk off the 212-ball record set a fortnight ago by Australia's Adam Gilchrist, and gave England an almighty scare.

"I think I'll enjoy this one. It's nice to knock someone like Gilchrist off the perch," Astle admitted. "It was a momentum thing and Chris and I thought we'd try and keep it going and only have a serious look when we needed about 80 runs. The bat I use weighs 2lbs and 12oz [four ounces heavier than Andy Flintoff's] and I didn't get tired of hitting them. It's got a few cracks in it, but I'll get it fixed up for the Second Test."

Astle has been described as one of cricket's free spirits who was turned from an out and out striker into a batsman of Test class by Glenn Turner, who coached the New Zealand side in the mid-1990s. With a remarkable 20 one-day hundreds to his name, it was his consecutive centuries against West Indies in 1996, when Walsh and Ambrose were still full of vigour, that gave proper notice of his Test talent. Ever the aggressor at the crease, this was his eighth three-figure score in Tests and it pushed his average to a shade under 40, the benchmark for greatness at Test level.

Although Hussain was right to point out the lack of pressure on Astle, the innings was so breathtaking that it invaded the memory to such an extent that the first two sessions of the day, when Caddick repeated his penchant for taking second-innings wickets with another five-wicket bag (he finished with 6 for 122), appeared as ancient history.

For the record, the home side started out on 28 for 0, needing either to save the match by batting for two days, or score 522 to win it. No one considered the latter, especially when a crocked last man, Chris Cairns, batting with a runner, joined Astle. With 217 wanted, not even the most desperate Bombay bookie will have entertained the slightest thought of a home victory, until a maelstrom of hitting. which saw 102 runs come from just 55 balls, suddenly reduced the deficit to below 100.

Then came the realisation that perhaps broke the fantasy, or the zone, as players call the trance-like brilliance that tends to visit most of them once or twice a career. Having just hit Hoggard into the ranks of the Barmy Army over long-on, Astle tried to play differently as expectations of an unprecedented victory began to loom.

Hoggard certainly bowled differently, sending down successive slower balls. Swishing and missing the first, Astle gave himself room to club the second over extra cover for another six. Instead of the ball striking the meat of the bat, though, it found the edge, and James Foster, having tightened up his wicketkeeping, completed a dismissal much to the relief of his team-mates.

After his marvellous bowling in the first innings, Hoggard will have quickly realised how capricious relying on swing can be. As Hussain pointed out, the drop-in pitch began so grassy and damp that this was a Test match in reverse, with the surface becoming better to bat on rather than worse, which is usually the case once the ageing process sets in.

Fortunately for England, while Hoggard, Flintoff and Giles struggled to make headway, Caddick found the extra pace and bounce to his liking. Snaffling the first three in the order before lunch, Caddick bowled beautifully, as all but Mark Richardson and Stephen Fleming lacked the gumption or the technique to play him.

When he returned for his afternoon spell, he again struck in quick succession, catching Craig McMillan off his own bowling and bowling Adam Parore off an inside edge to leave New Zealand 252 for 6. But while he and his team- mates bestrode the pitch like giants waiting to crush their foe, something was beginning to stir inside the man who had just passed 50 at the other end. Not long after, as England took the second new ball, only the Richter scale could measure its magnitude.

First Test Scoreboard

New Zealand won toss

England

First innings 228 (N Hussain 106).

Second innings 468-6 dec (G P Thorpe 200 no, A Flintoff 137).

New Zealand

First innings 147 (M J Hoggard 7-63)

Second innings
M H Richardson c Foster b Caddick 76
M J Horne c Foster b Caddick 4
L Vincent c Butcher b Caddick 0
*S P Fleming c Foster b Flintoff 48
N J Astle c Foster b Hoggard 222
C D McMillan c and b Caddick 24
A C Parore b Caddick 1
D L Vettori c Flintoff b Giles 12
C J Drum lbw b Flintoff 0
I G Butler c Foster b Caddick 4
C L Cairns not out 23

Extras (b9, lb11, w1, nb16) 37

Total (411 mins, 93.3 overs) 451

Fall: 1-42 (Horne), 2-53 (Vincent), 3-119 (Richardson), 4-189 (Fleming), 5-242 (McMillan), 6-252 (Parore), 7-300 (Vettori), 8-301 (Drum), 9-333 (Butler), 10-451 (Astle).

Bowling: Caddick 25-8-122-6 (nb9, w1) (13-7-27-2 6-0-33-1 3-0-17-2 3-1-45-1), Hoggard 24.3-5-142-1 (nb5) (4-2-5-0 3-1-11-0 6-0-23-0 2-0-13-0 6-2-28-0 2-0-41-0 1.3-0-21-1), Giles 28-6-73-1 (1-0-1-0 13-3-38-0 3-0-10-0 8-2-21-1 3-1-3-0), Flintoff 16-1-94-2 (nb2) (2-1-6-0 6-0-30-1 5-0-34-1 3-0-24-0).

Progress: Third day: bad light stopped play 5.57pm-close 28-0 (Richardson 20, Horne 3) 10 overs. Fourth day: play began at 10am. 50: 81 mins, 18.1 overs. 100: 147 mins, 34.4 overs. Lunch 140-3 (Fleming 30, Astle 13) 46 overs. 150: 209 mins, 48.4 overs. 200: 252 mins, 58.2 overs. 250: 295 mins, 67.3 overs. Tea 270-6 (Astle 83, Vettori 4) 72 overs. 300: 329 mins, 76.5 overs. New ball taken after 81 overs at 315-8. 350: 362 mins, 83.4 overs. 400: 382 mins, 86.4 overs. 450: 410 mins, 93.1 overs. Innings closed 5.07pm.

Richardson 50: 118 mins, 90 balls, 10 fours. Astle 50: 74 mins, 54 balls, 10 fours. 100: 149 mins, 114 balls, 16 fours, 2 sixes. 150: 186 mins, 136 balls, 25 fours, 3 sixes. 200: 218 mins, 153 balls, 27 fours, 9 sixes.

Result: England won by 98 runs.

Umpires: B F Bowden and E A R de Silva.

TV Replay Umpire: D M Quested.

Match Referee: J L Hendriks.

Man of the match: G P Thorpe.