Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson made it beyond 12 o’clock. Shame England’s batters couldn’t do likewise.The captain and one of his bowlers venturing out past midnight after the final day of the first Test was a root cause of their team-mates being rolled before midday on the final day of the second.
Stokes and Atkinson’s nightclub antics – however minor they now appear to be – meant they were stood down for the Oval encounter and an inexperienced England were shown up in their absence, out-thought and out-skilled by a wily New Zealand side.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Highlights from day five of the second Test at The Kia Oval as England slumped to a 253-run defeat without Stokes
We pondered after England’s victory in a frantic first fixture at Lord’s whether the result represented a reset after an error-strewn and chastening Ashes winter.But after another drink-related episode, and another Test match tonking, it feels like a full-on repeat, except that it is a different Antipodean team dishing out the drubbing.
England lacked tools to compete at OvalAs deflating as the Oval annihilation turned out to be, it was also utterly predictable.
Without Stokes, Atkinson, Ollie Robinson (sore knee) and Jamie Smith (paternity leave) and with three debutants as well as another fast bowler playing only his second Test and first in four years, England just did not have the tools to compete.
It was the equivalent of entering a sword fight with a balloon cutlass.
Image:
Joe Root captained an inexperienced England side in Stokes’ absence
Sonny Baker bounded in gleefully but lacked guile at times.Fellow pacer Matthew Fisher took five wickets in the game yet was often anodyne, with his most telling contribution a surprise half-century from the No 9 spot that cut England’s deficit to 100 runs on first innings and fleetingly flickered hopes of a heist.Wicketkeeper-batter James Rew endured a torrid outing, with byes flying past him – most of them not his fault, granted – dropped catches and no scores of note.Stokes’ stand-in as skipper Joe Root presided over an ill-thought-out bouncer barrage on the second morning that allowed New Zealand to plunder…
2026-06-22 07:00:00
