Alastair Cook may have said England were lucky to escape from Dunedin with a draw but they got themselves out of jail by batting for so long in the second innings and will be hoping the worst in this series is now behind them.
Clearly there is a pattern of poor starts to overseas series that Andy Flower will want to correct but in many ways it is the nature of modern touring.
Duncan Fletcher used to say that he would rather his team be a little but under-cooked at the start of an intense period of cricket rather than running out of steam before the end of a big series and I would rather England be just that little bit under-done now if it means they are about right after 10 Ashes Tests.
In training: England captain Alastair Cook takes part in a fielding drill ahead of the second TestSo there is certainly no need to read too much into England’s first innings collapse and I certainly didn’t think that England would lose the first Test at any stage, not even when they were bowled out for 167.
But what Dunedin did do was remind England that New Zealand, as I said last week, can find you out if you are not totally switched on to tackle them. Perhaps sub-consciously England felt they did not need to be at their absolute best to defeat the Kiwis, but they will be mentally tuned in now.
It won't happen again: Hussain says England will be ready for the rest of the tour In conference: England coach Andy Flower speaks to players during a practice sessionHistorically left-arm seamers have provided problems for England and Kevin Pietersen, for one, will have to work on his alignment against the left-armers after being dismissed twice by Neil Wagner.
Pietersen had a poor first Test and it wouldn’t entirely surprise me if he had a quiet series because he tends to be at his best the bigger the occasion. Perhaps a Test series in New Zealand doesn’t get him going like other opponents do, but if he gets a start he can destroy any attack.
But for Nick Compton this was the biggest match of his career to date.
When you are on a pair as a batsman you just cannot think of anything else until you get a chance again in the second innings and Compton showed a lot of mental toughness to come through with a hundred.
It was just what he needed because your first hundred at this level tells you that you can do it. He has been doing the hard work in Test cricket and then getting out but now he knows he can push on to big scores.
This really was a similar start to the Indian Test series before Christmas except that England didn’t lose and I expect this series to follow the same pattern.
Playing New Zealand away is never easy but I think England will get better game by game, starting with the second Test in Wellington tonight.
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