Matt Henry, Neil Wagner and Ajaz Patel have bowled New Zealand to the brink of a stunning test series win over England. Source / Spark Sport
OPINION:
There are only so many ways to say the same thing but if you're a New Zealand cricket fan you've picked a great time to be alive.
Of the extended touring squad to England, the only players you cannot make a strong case for inclusion into the playing XIfor the World Test Championship final are those who haven't had a run: Jacob Duffy, Doug Bracewell and the kid, Rachin Ravindra.
(After Ajaz Patel's success in Birmingham, it is tempting to add Mitchell Santner to that list, but with some creative debating you could argue that the latter's stronger batting pedigree gives his advocates a case to work with.)
There are players both likely and almost certain to miss out at Southampton who have done most things asked from them in limited opportunities, from classy top order batsman Will Young to batting allrounder Daryl Mitchell and back-up keeper Tom Blundell.
Matt Henry would have started the tour as the longest of long shots to play the WTC final, but his terrific performance at Edgbaston has marked him as something of a Dukes ball specialist and his name will at least be in conversations as the team moves south after, you assume, putting the finishing touches on a win tonight.
Superiority complex
Caution: impossible-to-prove point about to be made.
One of the most impressive things about this performance is the way New Zealand have "owned" Edgbaston despite making six changes from Lord's to and despite it being a return-to-normality party that should have worked in the home side's favour as fans streamed back to live sport after a long, hard lockdown.
Instead the opposite was true. New Zealand's chest puffed out under the spotlight while the home team shrank.
Neil Wagner celebrates taking the wicket of Ollie Pope. Photosport
Yes, there is a skill differential that is marked, particularly the way the top six batsmen have gone about their work, but there's something else that has been notable: New Zealand, no matter who they put on the park, have carried themselves like they're a vastly superior side and they know it.
Swagger is not a word you'd ever use to describe the Black Caps, but there's something about the way they've carried themselves in this series that suggests they know how good they can be. It's nothing you can measure, but if you've spent a lifetime watching New Zealand play cricket, you'll recognise what a rare and to-be-treasured time this is.
Even England coach Chris Silverwood was in deferential mode, saying that his side could take "great lessons" from watching the way their opposition play.
Success is catching
An often overlooked part of their success has been the catching behind the wicket. New Zealand has superb slippers from Ross Taylor and Tom Latham who are fixed at first and second, through to a bevy of third slippers, including Tim Southee, Colin de Grandhomme and Daryl Mitchell, who all have flypaper hands.
Henry Nicholls is a very fine gully fieldsman, as is skipper Kane Williamson, who mostly prefers mid-off these days so he can talk with his bowlers.
This is not an imagined advantage either. A stat flashed up in the coverage overnight that had New Zealand at the top of the slip-fielding efficiency stats, with 91 per cent of chances taken.
Tom Latham catches Rory Burns off the bowling of Matt Henry for 0. Photosport
England's catching in the series has been poor, with Joe Root shelling Will Young on 7 here with the simplest of chances, and the unfortunate James Bracey dropping Tom Blundell on 0.
The series has been a nightmare start (and possibly end) to Bracey's test career. He has mustered scores of 0, 0 and 9, dropped catches and let through a whopping 26 byes across the series. By the time he departed overnight, trying a cheeky sweep off Patel, he looked a broken young man.
Anxious eighties
The Edgbaston test has set a curious record in that five batsmen had had their innings terminated in the 80s.
In England's first innings, nuggety left-hander Rory Burns was dismissed for 81, the same score his middle-order compatriot Dan Lawrence was left stranded on as the tail folded around him.
More 80s strangeness was to follow in New Zealand's innings, starting when the in-form Devon Conway picked out deep square on the fence with a Caribbean-style flick off Stuart Broad for 80. In day two's final over, Young succumbed to part-time spinner Lawrence for 82.
The fun and games continued on day three when Taylor, searching for his 20th test century, drove hard at Olly Stone and nicked behind for 80.
It is fair to say nobody has threatened the 80s since.
Brutal Bumble
He had the look of an amiable newsagent, but former England coach and one of the world's most treasured commentators David Lloyd was stinging in his appraisal of this England side.
He'd already cleared his lungs after the Lord's test after England declined the opportunity to pursue a tricky fourth innings target, noting that great players in the past, like Geoff Boycott and Ken Barrington, had been dropped for scoring too slowly.
Here he took aim at the top six's technique, saying you cannot have success at this level if you can't master the basics of defending.
"There's a lot to say about it," he said in his post-match wrap. "They've been out of the game from the start on a placid pitch. It's not good enough. They haven't shown up."
