England cricket head coach Trevor Bayliss slams his side’s ’embarrassing’ First Test meltdown against New Zealand
Tourists capitulated against the Black Caps in the first innings of the first day as they were bowled all out for 58 after slumping to 27-9
TREVOR BAYLISS admitted he was embarrassed to watch England’s pathetic collapse in the First Test.
Head coach Bayliss compared England’s slump to 27-9 and 58 all out to a contagious illness that swept through the team.
He said: “We were nowhere, like rabbits in the headlights. It was a very poor effort– it wasn’t good enough. New Zealand bowled extremely well and we batted equally as badly.
“Someone sneezes and the rest of the guys catch a cold, don’t they? Everyone was making the same type of mistakes with their feet not moving properly and their decision-making not as it normally is.
“We’ve been on the other side of scores like this and then the feeling is one of euphoria. This is the opposite.”
England managed to beat their lowest total of 45 all out but their pathetic performance on the opening day of the series against the Kiwis was their sixth-worst score in history.
Fall of wickets
6-1 - Cook c Latham b Boult (5)
6-2 - Root b Boult (0)
16-3 - Malan c Watling b Boult (2)
18-4 - Stoneman c Watling b Southee (11)
18-5 - Stokes b Boult (0)
18-6 - Bairstow c&b Southee (0)
23-7 - Woakes b Boult (5)
23-8 - Moeen b Southee (0)
27-9 - Broad c Williamson b Southee (0)
58 all out - Anderson c Nicholls b Boult (1)
When asked whether he was embarrassed, Bayliss replied: “Certainly - and I probably wasn’t the only one in the England changing-room, either.
“It hurts but all we can do is take it on the chin, work out what we can do better and go back and work as possibly hard as we can at it.
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“We made a lot of mistakes with our footwork. The ball was swinging a little but when that’s happening, you have to play forward.
“Is it a mental approach? Is it something in our preparation? Are we good enough at working out how to play when we lose early wickets?
England's lowest Test scores
45 vs Australia - Sydney 1887
46 vs West indies - Port of Spain 1994
51 vs West indies - Kingston 2009
52 vs Australia - The Oval 1948
53 vs Australia - Lord's 1888
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"We’ll sit down and discuss that before the next innings and hopefully things will get a lot better.
"We have the best England players here that we can pick from.”