Marcus Trescothick backs Zak Crawley following his disappointing performance in ongoing New Zealand Test series

Dec 16, 2024

Hamilton [New Zealand], December 16 : Former England left-hand batter Marcus Trescothick backed right-hand batter Zak Crawley following his disappointing performance in the ongoing Test series against New Zealand away from home.
Crawley was dismissed after scoring just five runs off 17 balls which included one four in his inning. The right-hand batter was dismissed by right-arm seamer Matt Henry for the sixth time in this series and the eighth time overall.
At the end of Day 3, England were 18/2, still needing 640 more runs with two full days of play left. Root and Bethell are on the crease for England.
"It's always tough when someone gets something over you, and you find it challenging and you've got to come up with plans. I had similar situations in my time when I was playing against other oppositions. You go away when you've got the opportunity, which he has now, to try and think about it before next time they come up against each other," Trescothick said as quoted by ESPNcricinfo.
Further, the 48-year-old said that the England management will work harder to bring back Crawly into form.
"I think the important part of this is to remember we're very much focussed on him being the opening batter for a good period to come. We've seen the damage that he does and how he goes about it. I don't want to give you too much about how he goes about it in the changing room because it's the private area of what we have... but he's a strong character. Although it's challenging when it's like this when someone gets you under the pump, it's tough, but he'll find a way. And we'll help him find a way to get back to that point," the former opener added.
Coming to the match, England won the toss and opted to field first. Half-centuries from Mitchell Santner (76 in 117 balls, with 10 fours and two sixes) and Tom Latham (63 in 135 balls, with nine fours) were the standouts for Kiwis while useful contributions from Williamson (44 in 87 balls, with nine fours) and Will Young (42 in 92 balls, with 10 fours) pushed Kiwis to 347 runs.
Potts (4/90) and Atkinson (3/66) were the top bowlers for England while Brydon Carse got two and Stokes got one.
Coming in to bat in their first innings, England were put under pressure by New Zealand seamers in their opening burst. Matt Henry (4/48) removed both the openers - Zak Crawley (21 in 14 balls, with five fours) and Ben Duckett (11) - in quick succession.
Will O'Rourke (3/33) then ran through the England middle order, snapping Jacob Bethell (12), Harry Brook (0) and Joe Root (32 in 42 balls, with six fours) to reduce them to 82/5.
Santner (3/7), who had been New Zealand's top scorer with the bat, also struck thrice before Henry cleaned up the tail as New Zealand strangled the visiting batting lineup - restricting them at 143, giving the team a lead of 204 runs. The only breathing space England could afford was a 52-run stand between Ollie Pope (24 in 42 balls, with five fours) and skipper Stokes (27 in 43 balls, with five fours). From 77/2, England lost their next eight wickets for just 76 runs.
Later, the Kiwis increased their lead to a massive 657 runs, setting 658 runs for England to win.
Brief Scores: NZ: 347 and 453 (Kane Williamson 156, Daryl Mitchell 60, Jacob Bethell 3/72) vs England: 143 and 18/2 (Jacob Bethell 9*, Zak Crawley 5, Tim Southee 1/4).