McCullum bouncer

England believed that they were not aggressive enough towards Brendon McCullum in the first innings. Ryan Sidebottom admitted as much on Friday evening. He said that the bowlers would not send down bouncers willy-nilly, but that the weapon of the short ball would, if nothing else, prevent McCullum from moving down the crease outside the line of off stump to attack. McCullum could have avoided injury by dropping his wrists to Stuart Broad’s short ball. He can be a devastating cutter and puller, but dislikes the bouncer, as England well know. In the winter, Sidebottom removed him with a short ball in the Twenty20 game at Eden Park in Auckland and James Anderson in the 50-over match at the same venue.

Straight on

McCullum had signalled his intent by straight driving a one-bounce four against Monty Panesar to get off the mark. Michael Vaughan, with characteristic imagination, then posted Anderson at long-on only a foot or so to the right of the stumps but roughly 70 yards back. The position almost warranted its own name: deep straight-on.

Ball change

A meaty pull by Jamie How against Anderson that clattered into a boundary board had far more expensive consequences than the four runs it earned. England were no doubt happy when the damaged ball was changed soon afterwards because the first ball with the replacement swung into James Marshall to give Sidebottom a leg-before decision.

End to end

Sidebottom and Anderson operated from what seemed to be their natural ends - the left-armer from the Pavilion End with the downhill slope assisting his inswing and Anderson from the Nursery End shaping the ball away. Why, though, switch from the first innings, when they were successful the opposite way around?

Most of Anderson’s success at Lord’s has been from the Pavilion End, while Sidebottom took four wickets for five runs on Friday in 10.1 overs - all from the Nursery End. Neither bowler was anywhere near as effective yesterday and it was a surprise that Vaughan did not revert to Plan A until he took the second new ball, by which time New Zealand were in the secure position of 240 for four.

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