Date-stamped : 05 Jul94 - 10:27 New Zealand v England, Test 3 played at Old Trafford, 30 Jun - 5 Jul 94 (Rest 3 Jul) ====> Day 4, 04 Jul 94 The remarkable inconsistency of the NZ Test Cricket team contin- ues with an inept display of batting in the first innings of the Third Test vs. England. For those who saw NZ absolutely thrashed by Pakistan earlier this year in the second Test, only to turn around and win the Third Test, then their see-saw form on the Tour of England is nothing new but still remains equally inexpli- cable. The bowling (excepting the 2nd stringers in Test1) has not been to blame on this tour anywhere near as much as the bat- ting which has gone from woeful (Test1), much better than England (Test2), and back to woeful again. Once again Dion Nash produced an outstanding bowling effort in England's first innings, capturing 4-107 following 6-76 and 5-93 in Test2. He got Gooch first ball - Gooch has now been dismissed for next to nothing (or absolutely nothing) in his last three turns at bat against Nash. The New Zealand selector's are to be congratulated for seeing the potential in Nash. Owens also re- turned his best Test bowling figures of 4-99 and was much im- proved from the second Test. With the development of Nash and Owens on this tour, it will be much harder for Simon Doull and especially Chris Cairns to force their way back into the Test side. The other positive feature about Nash and Owens is that their bowling actions would appear to place less stress on the body in contrast to Doull who while potentially a match-winner, seems to be up there with Bruce Reid in the injury prone stakes. The England innings should have ended much sooner but for a wonderful 130 run partnership between de Freitas and Gough who scored 69 and 65 respectively. Gough who impressed me in the only One Day International looks to be a particularly feisty player ... which proved to be true when his turn at bowling came up. He intelligently peppered Mark Greatbatch with short straight quick deliveries and this will surely prove to be Mark Greatbatch's last Test match unless the opposition is all medium pace or under. Greatbatch has a weakness against the short ball that makes Graeme Hick look a master in comparison. He made 0 in the first innings and struggled his way to 21 in the second, a brave effort as he was batting with a broken finger. Nevertheless the harsh fact is that Greatbatch was out of his depth and the decision to open with him instead of the already-tried-but-failed Pocock and Hartland proved to be no im- provement. The first innings display of batting was described by coach Geoff Howarth thus: "There were too many bad shots to get out, a lack of timing, feet not moving to the pitch of the ball, that sort of thing". Which basically says it was bad. Thomson mysteriously went from looking very assured in Test2 to being clueless, making 9 in the first innings and a very lucky 21 in the second. The En- glish bowlers have worked out long ago that Steven Fleming much prefers the on-side, and if you bowl around the wicket outside offstump he will crash a couple of lovely off drives but sooner or later he will tickle it to slips. Which is what they used to say about another left hander called Gower. Rutherford after two good years in Test cricket seems to have re- turned to the bad old days when any score he got over 20 was something of an achievement. It almost goes without saying that the comments on the batting do not apply to Martin Crowe who was once again in a class of his own. He looked terrible physically, still having the flu, and his first innings approach was somewhat bizarre. Batting out of order at no.5 (why? it only meant he de- layed his arrival at the crease by the amount of time it took Fleming to hit a couple of fours) he seemed to think he was in a different game where 10 runs per over were required. He reached 26 off 10 balls before settling down to a run a ball. Eventually he fell to a trap for the hook shot. Thankfully in the second innings he is playing more sedately and if New Zealand have any hope of saving the match he will have to stay a longer. NZ were helped by rain on Day 4 but with a whole day to play the quick dismissal of Crowe could still give the game to England. That so far hasn't at all looked likely and as he approaches test century no.17 its worth noting he has only been dismissed once in the nineties ever. Credit goes to Adam Parore who has supported him admirably, scoring at a fast rate. Parore is probably the best shot maker in the side after Crowe and Fleming but he always looks highly likely to get out - witness his first innings effort of 7, where he marched to the crease and started playing extrava- gant shots immediately. After the first Test debacle, this series has produced two great matches of cricket. Contributed by Howard.Silby (howard@tahi.isor.vuw.ac.nz)