GLOBAL Cricket


	England v New Zealand, 1st Test, Lords 20 May 2008
	England have just finished their first test against New Zealand, and the match has ended in a tie, and sadly the game was heavily affected by the weather. England won the toss, and inserted New Zealand. England got off to a dream start when they restricted New Zealand to 76/4 off 24 overs. England would have felt that they should be able to keep them to a score at under 200. However, cometh the hour, cometh the man, as Brendon McCullum stepped to the plate and took the England attack apart, playing his usual attacking array of shots. However, wickedts fell regularly around McCullum, which stopped him participating in a large partnership. However, when on 97 off 96 balls, and with half an eye on having his name on the Lords centurion board, he was bowled by Monty Panesar. Thanks to McCullum's typical swashbuckling innings, New Zealand reached a par score at 277 all out. In response, England got off to a solid start, with the opening partnership worth 121 runs, until Cook fell caught behind thanks to a good delivery from Chris Martin. Strauss fell shortly afterwards, and this started a long run of wickets for not very many runs. However, Stuart Broad came to the crease at this point and him and Michael Vaughan added a 61 run partnership. Michael Vaughan during this time began to put his foot on the accelerator. England were eventually all out for 319, with Michael Vaughan top scoring with a valuable knock of 106. Best bowler by far was skipper Daniel Vettori with figures of 5/69. However, by the end of Day 4 New Zealand were only 40/0 in reponse due to many delays in play due to rain and bad light. It would have taken a miracle for there to be a result from this match. New Zealand never looked like collapsing, and ended the day on 269/6. Jacob Oram struck an attacking 101 at a strike rate over 80, before being cleaned up by the ever accurate Ryan Sidebottom. Man of the Match was Daniel Vettori for his 48 runs and his 5 for. The next test begins on Friday 22nd May at Old Trafford, Manchester. Any of those who were at Lords for the test match, please send us any pictures you may have taken there, or a report of your experience there to admin@globalcricket.co.uk or if you are going to Old Trafford send us some of your pictures from there to the same address.