The English bowlers keep pitching full in order to take the most advantage they could with the swing on offer, but in turn, kept getting driven for boundaries. © AFP
"I thought there was the threat all day. The boys went past the edge of the bat. We could have easily bowled them out for 250, and we'd be in a very different position."

Jon Lewis, England's bowling coach made a fair assessment of his team's performance, but the reality is starkly different. New Zealand find themselves comfortably placed at 318 for 4, yet again bailed out by the fifth wicket pair of Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell. The duo batted out the second half of the day, stitching an unbeaten 145-run stand, playing out a tricky 45-over phase on an opening day at Trent Bridge, after their team was reduced to 169 for 4 after being asked to bat.

"I thought it was an honest day's work," he confessed. "We were just a little bit short of what we would have liked. The most important thing about the toss was it was an aggressive play. We were coming out to try to bowl New Zealand out. Unfortunately, we missed a couple of chances.

The English bowlers keep pitching full in order to take the most advantage they could with the swing on offer, but in turn, kept getting driven for boundaries. The visitors stroked as many as 43 fours and two sixes in only 87 overs of play on Friday (June 10).

Devon Conway, the New Zealand opener felt the tactic worked in their favour instead. As a result, all the New Zealand batters managed to get starts, even as none of the top four managed to register a half-century. Mitchell and Blundell, on the other hand, went to stumps unbeaten on 81 and 67 respectively. "Even in the first Test we felt they bowled quite full," he said. "By bowling that, it provided scoring opportunities and we tried to put pressure back on to the bowlers. They resorted to bowling short balls at us, and that allowed us to score again."

Conway also expressed shock at umpires' - Michael Gough and Paul Reiffel - decision of not changing the ball after one of the sixes by Mitchell off Jack Leach, in the 56th over of the day, landed in the cider pint of one of the spectators at the ground.

"We were quite shocked that they didn't change the ball, we've all got Covid protocols put in place and thought they might look to have changed it," Conway said.

"Certainly, it didn't swing as much, so Daryl played a very smart role there to make sure the ball doesn't swing as much!

"It was an interesting period and I did see the umpire try to dry it as much as he could with a towel. If that did play a role on the ball I don't know, but it was a funny passage of play."

On a lighter note, he added, "I certainly hope he does (offers a replacement glass to the spectator), that will be the right thing, part of our culture to do that sort of thing," he said.

"I must say, Tim Southee did spot it quite well, he called it straight away when it landed in the beer cup, cider cup, whatever it was. It's funny how it happened and it was good camera work from the cameraman to capture that."