LONDON — England was 24-1 against New Zealand when rain stopped play on the first morning Thursday of their test series opener at Lord’s.
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Only 45 minutes and 10 overs of action were allowed and an early lunch was eventually taken an hour later.
The one wicket was that of debutant Emilio Gay, who played Twenty20s for Italy last year. After a couple of driven boundaries off Kyle Jamieson, Gay nicked Jamieson to first slip on 8 at 16-1.
Fellow opener Ben Duckett was on 12 and Jacob Bethell on 4 when play was halted, and England’s 24 runs were its lowest total after 10 overs since coach Brendon McCullum took charge in 2022, launching the aggressive Bazball era.
Gay was gifted a wide full toss from Jamieson that he drove to the boundary to start his test career but his demise in the sixth over, on defense to a beautiful delivery nipping away, continued a trend by England since the first Ashes test in Perth last November of losing a wicket in the first 10 overs of an innings.
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The Lord’s test is England’s first since January in Australia where it lost the Ashes 4-1. England went into that series with high expectations of success against a depleted Australian side and the backlash has been stark.
McCullum has talked for the past week of refining their game and playing smarter.
But captain Ben Stokes didn’t win the toss on his 35th birthday and New Zealand counterpart Tom Latham was happy to bowl first with a rare full-strength pace attack.
Jamieson and Will O’Rourke have recovered from long-term back injuries to bowl together in a test for the first time. Jamieson’s wicket was his first since February 2024. Matt Henry leads the attack and Nathan Smith was chosen as the fourth seamer after taking eight Ireland wickets in the Belfast warmup last week.
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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket
