0England vs New Zealand: Second Test, Day 4

Bit of a steady day today… if the weath­er is OK tomor­row Eng­land will almost cer­tainly win and if it chucks it down then a draw would seem likely.

But it should already be all over with a com­fort­able vic­tory, prob­ably by an innings. Cook should have enforced the fol­low-on. Even if Eng­land had ended up los­ing he would have made a clear state­ment of intent and put a mark­er down that he is an aggress­ive and gutsy char­ac­ter who takes no pris­on­ers. Instead he took the defens­ive option.

Nev­er­the­less he yet again demon­strated his sheer class with the bat by hit­ting anoth­er cen­tury. He already aver­ages the best part of 49 and the per­ceived notion is that play­ers hit the peak of their form when they get to 30 years of age so the 28 year old has a year and a half until he reaches that mile­stone. Let’s hope he con­tin­ues to lead from the front when it comes to the Aus­sies in a few weeks time.

It was also good to see Trott get some runs again although what he was play­ing at last night I’ll nev­er know. The man is a class act but some­times he seems determ­ined to only play one way, whatever the match situ­ation. World class play­ers have a main way of play­ing but adapt accord­ing to what is required. Trott needs to start doing that if he is to push on to be a truly world class player.