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The dreaded 'chokers' tag has been resurrected for the New Zealand cricketers as former England test players rounded on them for throwing away the second test here.
Echoing the Old Trafford press box wag who said "I thought only your rugby team were chokers," former England captain Nasser Hussain joined the chorus in his Daily Mail column today.
"I don't like to call anybody chokers but New Zealand were frenetic, sloppy and lacked the mental toughness when they got into a winning position here," Hussain wrote.
"Yes, luck didn't go their way with the unfortunate injury to Daniel Flynn but it was almost as if they couldn't believe the position they were in and failed to capitalise on it."
The Guardian's Mike Selvey suggested New Zealand, who led by 179 runs on the first innings, would be hard-pressed to recover mentally as they bid to square the series in the third test in Nottingham on Thursday next week.
"They were undone by their own temperaments and a lack of technique in coping with (Monty) Panesar whose successful bowling downwind came only as a result of watching (Daniel) Vettori from the same end," Selvey wrote.
"Their hangdog demeanour after the batting debacle told of a side that might struggle to regain the sort of impetus that carried them through the first two days or so of the test."
Also in The Guardian, David Hopps said the New Zealand decision to deny an ill Daniel Flynn his wish to bat in the second innings, after his fearful head knock, was crucial.
"The decision protected Flynn but it may have cost them the test...another 20 or 30 runs would have shaken England's conviction that what was already a record Manchester run chase was achievable."
The English press hailed their team's six-wicket win, with photos of a beaming century maker Andrew Strauss plastering the front and back pages.
Under the headline "Escape to victory," The Telegraph's chief cricket writer Derek Pringle rated the win somewhere near the famous Ian Botham-inspired victory over Australia in Leeds in 1981.
"Two contrasting hundreds, one scored with the bat from Andrew Strauss, the other conceded with the ball by Daniel Vettori, eventually settled this topsy-turvy test match in favour of the home side.
"At the start of play both men held the fortunes of their teams in their hands, but on a day when plot-lines and the pitch suddenly stopped turning, it was Strauss who prevailed to secure England's greatest comeback since Headingley 1981."
- NZPA
