Vaughan criticises Lord's pitch after 33 wickets fall in two days
Thirty-three wickets fell in two days at Lord’s, prompting Michael Vaughan and Nasser Hussain to question whether England’s most famous Test venue had gone too far.
Lord’s is under sharp scrutiny after 33 wickets fell in the first two days of the opening Test between England and New Zealand, turning the season’s first major match at the ground into a debate about standards as much as results. With 16 wickets on day one and another 17 on day two, ESPNcricinfo noted that a wicket fell every 25 balls across the opening two days.
The surface produced a starkly uneven contest. England were bowled out for 140 in 39.4 overs in their first innings, New Zealand replied with 113 in 29.5 overs, and England then reached 226 in their second innings to set a target of 254. New Zealand were 36 for 3 at stumps on day two, still needing 218 runs, but the arithmetic was almost secondary to the criticism directed at the pitch.
Michael Vaughan said he “felt sorry for the batters” and argued that the balance between bat and ball was not fair. Nasser Hussain was even blunter, calling the pitch “substandard” and saying batting was “impossible” because of the variable bounce. Vaughan also suggested the conditions had not created a proper test for bowlers, because the difficulty came from the surface rather than from a contest that rewarded skill in the usual way.
The argument matters more at Lord’s than it might elsewhere. The ground is the MCC-owned home of cricket, and officials have spent recent winters trying to improve the square, including using “steaming” to sterilise the soil and add pace and bounce. In this match, those efforts appeared to have done little to prevent a pitch that offered inconsistent pace and bounce from the first ball.
The Test is Lord’s 150th, a milestone that only deepens the attention on any shortcomings at the venue. It also opened England’s home summer after the 4-1 Ashes defeat over the winter, with the series moving on to The Kia Oval on June 17 and Trent Bridge on June 25. Sky Sports and CricViz rated the surface with a PitchViz Inconsistency Rating of 7.5 out of 10, described as the highest for a Test in England at that stage.
There was still cricket of note. England debutant Emilio Gay made a composed 57 in the second innings, Nathan Smith took 6 for 70, Kyle Jamieson claimed 5 for 62 in England’s first innings and added 38 not out, and Ollie Robinson completed a five-for in New Zealand’s first innings. But with a grim forecast for Saturday and the prospect of a finish inside three days, the discussion around Lord’s was already shifting from a memorable match to whether the venue had failed its own standards.
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