Cricket: Sun comes out, and Martin curses

By MARK GEENTY

LONDON - If the series against South Africa was Chris Martin's all-night party, he hopes his early season English hangover is fading fast.

Martin wandered out to the centre of Lord's picturing himself opening the bowling with Daryl Tuffey when New Zealand start their test series against England tomorrow.

Fresh from his dream comeback to test cricket, where he rocked the Proteas with 18 wickets at an average of 16.66, and set a New Zealand record by reaching 50 wickets in just his 13th test, he knows the bar has been raised.

"I know I can pull out some good games when I need to. I've got certain standards and expectations now that are good for me," Martin said.

But the wiry paceman, who has made a speciality of troubling left-handed batsmen with his outswing, has not set the county grounds of England alight in the past three weeks.

He took five wickets at 47.6 in two matches, but showed some improvement and more consistency at Canterbury last weekend, with his four for 92 in the nine-wicket loss to Kent.

Apparently adjusting to seemingly helpful early season English conditions was not the stroll it initially appeared to be.

"The Kent game was a bit of a kick up the backside," he said, "but most of us have played enough test cricket to go into a game knowing we can perform at that level.

"It is different at the moment, but we're getting to grips with it fairly quickly. We are going to have to bowl a bit fuller on these wickets.

"The Duke ball does swing for longer and we need to adjust our lengths to get the most out of the ball and the wicket."

The New Zealand pace bowlers are all used to pounding the ball into New Zealand surfaces and it is taking time for Martin, Tuffey, Jacob Oram and Chris Cairns to readjust.

And while the English summer arrived early yesterday with sunny 25C temperatures, Martin was cursing his luck and hoping for some thick cloud if New Zealand bowl first tomorrow.

"As the Auckland test proved, cloud cover generally gets the ball hooping around. It's meant to be clear for the first couple of days, so I don't know about the swing."

Swing was Martin's big weapon at Eden Park where he bagged a match analysis of 11 for 180 against the strong South African batting line-up in March.

England have left-handers Marcus Trescothick, Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe in their top six, and Martin is also looking forward to bowling with the pronounced Lord's slope angling the ball even further away from the lefties.

The Lord's phenomenon had Martin hooked as he eyed a packed house of 30,000 for the opening day of the three-match series.

While England will be slight favourites on their home ground, Martin said the venue could work in New Zealand's favour.

"England have to deal with the fact that most opposition play out of their skins here."

New Zealand trained without incident at Lord's yesterday, unlike the home side, who watched their captain Michael Vaughan wrench his knee to place him in doubt for the game.

Trescothick will take over as captain if Vaughan cries off, handing the tourists a marked advantage.

New Zealand look set to name a predictable 11, omitting Michael Papps, Shane Bond and Kyle Mills, with captain Stephen Fleming opening the batting.

* New Zealand v England, Lord's, live on Sky Sport 1 tomorrow from 9pm.

- NZPA