New Zealand coach loves watching 'battle' between Colin de Grandhomme and Joe Root

New Zealand bowling coach Shane Jurgensen has said that he loves watching the battle between pacer Colin de Grandhomme and England skipper Joe Root. Jurgensen said that De Grandhomme presents a challenge for Joe Root, who finds it difficult to face him in the middle, adding "I personally love watching the battle from up on the balcony". This comes after Thursday's end of the play, where De Grandhomme gave virtually no chance to Joe Root to score runs. The England batsman could manage only 1 run off the 30 deliveries he faced from De Grandhomme on Day 2 of the first Test match at Lord's. Jurgensen said he "loved" watching the battle between De Grandhomme and Root play out in the middle. 

"Colin certainly presents a challenge for Joe. Joe is such a fantastic player....a very good captain, and it's a great battle, and me personally, I love watching it from up on the balcony. On the speed radar, you may see 115-125 kilometres per hour, but as you see when he hits the cricket ball, and he hits a long way, he's extremely strong. so he does bowl a heavy ball and I think that's what you saw yesterday, he had the ball either jumping up or down and was getting some movement," Jurgensen was quoted as saying by ANI. 

England vs New Zealand 1st Test

Meanwhile, the 3rd day of the first Test match between England and New Zealand was washed out due to rain. Not a single ball was bowled due to non-stop rains, which prompted umpires to suspend the day's play on Friday. England had scored 111/2 before the end of play on Day 2 and is still trailing by 267 runs. The game is expected to resume on Saturday at 3:30 pm IST. Rory Burns and Joe Root, who finished Thursday's play at 59 and 42 runs respectively, will come out to bat once the match resumes. 

After winning the toss on Wednesday, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson had chosen to bat first. Tom Latham and debutant Devon Conway opened the batting for the Black Caps. Latham was dismissed for 23 runs by Ollie Robinson, while skipper Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor were sent back to the pavilion for 13 and 14 runs respectively. Conway, however, continued batting till the end of Day 1's play and scored an amazing century in the process with Henry Nicholls by his side. Conway and Nicholls resumed batting on Day 2 and the South African-born cricketer managed to reach 200 in his debut game at Lord's. New Zealand finished its first innings at 378. 

IMAGE: AP