Quite Harmless

Mmm, New Zealand don't seem to be crumbling as easily as many of us thought they would; they don't seem to be crumbling at all, in fact. Which, of course, makes for good Test cricket (don't you loathe completely one-sided cricket?)

What, though, is going on with Harmison and Hoggard? Aye, the Seddon Park wicket at Hamilton is hardly conducive to express bowling - not something you're going to get from Hoggy on any wicket - but both were treated with complete distain in New Zealand's first innings

Being naturally inclined towards the aesthetic, Harmison's action has always made me cringe, but at his best, when he's aggressively confident and getting that steepling bounce, he can be unplayable

Oh, the criticism he's taken from the TMS team during the first two days - all of it very just

Gus Fraser, for instance, couldn't understand why, even when Harmy was bowling yorkers, the ball was reaching batsman at nigh on the 'pace' that Gus himself used to bowl at. Fraser conceded that the very best seam bowlers of the last 20 years - McGrath, Pollock, Walsh and Ambrose - had all bowled at around about 78-82 miles per hour, but they, all four, could put the ball on a six-pence and move it both ways off the seam, none of which Harmison is capable of doing. Even when bowling at a greatly reduced speed, Harmison still can't consistently put it where he wants it nor get great movement off the pitch

Boycs got stuck in, too, claiming that he's only rarely been anything other than middling to poor in the past 3 years, whilst Aggers - or was it CMJ? - claimed that a Harmison over is typically a mixed bag made up of very good and very bad deliveries

To put my thruppence worth in, I can understand that Harmy's diminished confidence is having an adverse effect on his bowling and that he probably can't take the risk of really letting fly, but he has to keep thinking. Why, when Ross Taylor has - whilst on a growingly anxious 98 - in one over failed on three successive occasions to pierce the off-side field with drives from full-pitched bowling, then give him a short one that he can easily pull away to reach his hundred? Brainless cricket, I'm afraid

Hoggy? Well, there's no nip in his bowling and the conditions aren't helping him to swing the ball, so he must concentrate on length - which he has - and on line: which he hasn't, giving the New Zealand bowlers plenty of width to make hay from. Not good

It's early days, but with New Zealand scoring nearly 500 and with an opener and nightwatchman already out, England might be in a struggle to avoid defeat here