There’s no stopping New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum’s Cult of the Offensive

BJ Watling’s century sees New Zealand take impressive 338-run lead
England were bowled out for 350 before lunch to leave first innings level
New Zealand used the Cult of the Offensive to storm ahead on day three

Martin Samuel – Sport for the Daily Mail

Published:
21:34 GMT, 31 May 2015

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Updated:
00:34 GMT, 1 June 2015

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Down at Taunton, Chris Gayle was playing one of those mind-boggling Twenty20 innings that have altered irrevocably the way we view cricket in the 21st century.

Gayle scored 151 runs off 62 balls and somehow lost, to Kent. His Somerset team came up three runs short. Gayle hit 10 fours and 15 sixes in an innings that lasted one hour and 14 minutes. The short form version of the game is almost becoming a different sport.

Yet, in their own way, New Zealand are in pursuit of joyous amalgamation. Had captain Brendon McCullum stayed in for a century in his first innings at Headingley on Friday, his scoring rate would have got the deed done in roughly 68 balls.

New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum hit 55 from 98 balls as he played more cautiously on Sunday

McCullum, the New Zealand captain, led his team on an attack-minded pursuit against England this weekend

McCullum guided his team towards a winning position as New Zealand reached 338 for six after Sunday

His innings on Sunday was more restrained, but even with McCullum steering his team into a winning position, rather than simply bludgeoning England’s bowlers into submission, the tourists still scored at a rate that suggested Test cricket as we know it, is being left behind.

Not that England have to follow suit. For all the comments about the slow scoring of opening pair Alastair Cook and Adam Lyth this weekend, the steady collapse that followed their departure revealed the trouble England could have been in had early wickets been lost as cheaply as the middle order. Even so, it is a different game when New Zealand are playing.

Faster, exciting, pleasing on the eye and, one imagines, a greater challenge to contain. This doesn’t necessarily make the visitors a better team, but New Zealand are constantly looking to take the game away, over the hills and out of sight. They are a highly dangerous group of players, capable of exploding at any time and led by McCullum who pursues a sporting version of what, in historical terms, is known as the Cult of the Offensive.

Some military strategists – from World War I’s western front, to Hitler’s Blitzkrieg and Israel’s six-day war – believe an attacking army will invariably be victorious or at least cause more casualties than they receive, making defensive strategy redundant.

Attack is always the best option, runs the argument, and the only defence that is even slightly worthwhile is counter-attack. This is known as the Cult of the Offensive.

McCullum avoids a bouncer during day three of the Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley

New Zealand brought the Cult of the Offensive against England, where attack is always the best option

New Zealand are playing a faster and more exciting form of cricket as they go on the attack against England

A more benign presence than bloodthirsty generals and dictators, McCullum nonetheless applies similar thoughts to winning cricket matches. With the teams perfectly matched just before lunch – they scored 350 each, only the eighth time in Test history that this has happened – and eight sessions left in the game, New Zealand could have played Sunday out with caution.

A more conservative approach would have been to target a significant score, while taking time out of the day to tighten the screw on England.

One imagines, given Cook and Lyth’s partnership in the first innings, that this is what England would have done. England do not have a top order geared to unload.

New Zealand are wired differently. Even when Tom Latham fell for three runs in the sixth over, and Kane Williamson was dismissed in the tenth with the score at 23, they remained unfazed. They continued scoring into the early evening at a rate of 4.5 runs per over.

In doing so, they placed a demand on England’s fragile egos more effectively than a ticking clock ever could. And no, for those in thrall to cricket’s most frantic form of expression, it wasn’t Twenty20, but Test cricket can never be.

Alastair Cook leaves the field after being dismissed on the second day of the Test with New Zealand

There were plenty of comments about the slow scoring of opening pair Cook and Adam Lyth this weekend

There is a difference between playing hard to win, and professional suicide. In its own way, however, what New Zealand attempt is even more spectacular than Gayle’s innings in Taunton. We know the achievements in Twenty20 will change cricket forever; and we half expect it.

Yet the real revolution is taking place in Test cricket – Ben Stokes innings and the collective team scoring at Lord’s for instance – as the techniques and demands of the one-day game invade five-day traditions and strategies.

New Zealand are in the vanguard, going at those numbers on the scoreboard with greater abandon than any team in Test cricket right now, taking their lead from the great Australian teams under Mark Taylor and Steve Waugh, but modern, modern, modern.

England’s fielding was sloppy on Sunday and dropped catches and missed opportunities cost them dearly, but the main problem was that New Zealand never gave them time to think, or settle.

The tied first innings scores afford a perfect comparison. New Zealand’s 350 was made in 72.1 overs, England’s in 108.2. New Zealand scored at 4.8 per over, England at 3.2. In a full day’s cricket, at that rate, New Zealand will score 144 runs more than England.

New Zealand batsman BJ Watling reached 100 in 137 balls before stumps on Sunday evening

New Zealand’s Watling raises his bat after reaching his century on the third day of the Test with England

Cook has been grappling with that dilemma the entire series, and not always successfully.

Weather permitting, this match will now have a winner; and if it is to be England they are going to need to complete the second best run chase in the history of Test cricket at Headingley, surpassed only by Don Bradman’s Australians. And the best by an England team, anywhere.

Of course, like the mighty Chris Gayle, it is still possible that New Zealand could end up on the losing side. They did, after all, take 20 wickets and score 743 runs at Lord’s in defeat.

Yet this time feels different. England will need nerve and mental strength like never before to win here. It is far from certain this team has that, yet. Notch another one up to the Cult of the Offensive.