What a day to soil your whites.

Yesterday the Black Caps tried in vain to sabotage the first test against England.

Day one could have been better, New Zealand had an opportunity to gain an upper hand, but let it slip with some rash shots which lead to poor dismissals which in turn drained the momentum from a side that knew they should've done better. The day itself wasn't a disaster, but the players know that at the highest level, opportunities to dominate need to be leapt upon and ridden for all they are worth. Not a bad day, but it could’ve been better. Teams attempting to scale the Everest of their sport, in this case the world test championship, will never be satisfied with doing ok. Ok doesn’t win much.

Roll on day 2. NZ set a respectable total then proceeded to whale into the tourists, heading into lunch having extracted 3 English wickets then a fourth shortly after the resumption of play.

Promising but with the asterisk of grass. Ducket was shelled by Latham in the first session and the ability of the Black Caps to complete the catch haunted them for the rest of the day.

6 chances. A half dozen opportunities to push the dagger in and keep twisting. The English rock, Brook, served up 4 opportunities alone, NZ left them all on the turf.

Day one was acceptable, albeit frustratingly so. Day two wasn’t.

Let's hope the adage of bad things happening in three’s doesn’t bear fruit on day 3. 

For a team making a valiant attempt at home to qualify for the world test championship final, there will be a nagging fog of disappointment in their shed.

It’s a fresh day, hopefully with freshly laundered whites. 

Let's hope the Black Caps buck the trend and don’t brown their pants again...