A Test match for the ages

Readers of a certain vintage might be familiar with the work of J.A. (Charles) Cuddon, a teacher at Emanuel School in London and author of the Macmillan Dictionary of Sport and Games, which ran to some two million words of mostly exquisite prose. This is how he started his entry on cricket: ‘Cricket is a bat and ball game for 11 players, the object of which is to score more runs than the opposing team. Less prosaically it is the High Mass of sport, a sacrificial devotion to the gods of skill and chance, the most complete and arcane devotion yet devised by man.’

For anyone inclined to question that definition, the almost unbearably thrilling New Zealand-England Test match that finished in the small hours on Tuesday would have answered their doubts. England lost, but the game will be remembered for as long as people still talk about cricket.

Ben Stokes with his dizzying boldness on the field is emerging as England’s most successful captain since the great Arthur Shrewsbury in the late 1880s (rated by W.G. as the best batsman in England); Harry Brook is the most exciting Test batsman in the world, deserving of any Bradman comparisons which come his way. Even the Kiwis’ indefatigable Neil Wagner, whose heroic bowling was exhausting to watch, could only shake his head in disbelief as Brook smashed another fizzer to the stands; while Joe Root is still the batting genius that Wisden calls him, though not necessarily the best caller of a quick single. The whole team are playing with a freedom and joy that, ahem, the England rugby team might learn from.

But amid all the excitement there’s a danger we might forget the fine art of wicket keeping, and in Ben Foakes England have a supreme exponent.