Six off seventy-seven balls

England were set 481 at Eden Park in March 2013 and finished on 315 for nine. Matt Prior was 110 not out from 182 balls. The card’s result line reads Match drawn, and its series line reads three-match series drawn 0-0, and both of them turned on the two lines under Prior’s.

How 481 was set

England put New Zealand in and watched Peter Fulton make 136 and Kane Williamson 91 in a total of 443. Steven Finn took six for 125. England made 204, Trent Boult six for 68, and Fulton made another hundred, 110 from 165 balls, before Brendon McCullum declared at 241 for six. England were 90 for four at the close of the fourth day with Finn, the nightwatchman, in.

Full scorecard: New Zealand v England, 3rd Test, Auckland, 22–26 March 2013 →

The fifth day, by the card’s notes

Finn was caught for 0 at 90 in the second over of the morning. Ian Bell and Joe Root put on 60 in 158 balls. Root was leg before at 150, Jonny Bairstow caught at 159, and lunch was taken at 158 for five. Bell reached fifty from 197 balls.

Prior survived a New Zealand review in the 92nd over and won one of his own in the 94th. At tea it was 237 for seven, Bell caught for 75 from 271 balls, Prior 45.

Broad came in at 237. Prior went from 45 to a hundred, from 148 balls, and the card’s eighth-wicket note reads: 50 runs in 134 balls, Prior 52, Broad 0, extras 0. Broad was caught by Ross Taylor off Williamson for 6 at 304, in the 140th over, after 77 balls and 137 minutes. James Anderson was caught two balls later for 0. Nine down, 304, with 3.1 overs left.

Nineteen balls

Panesar faced five balls and made 2. Prior faced the rest and made the other nine runs, and the innings closed at 315 for nine when the overs ran out. Williamson finished with four for 44 from 20 overs, Bruce Martin with none for 74 from 39. The card gives the hours of play: a half past five close, and the match ended at it.

The other guys

Prior’s hundred is the innings and there is no argument about it. But the card’s numbers for Broad are the ones that describe what the afternoon was for. Seventy-seven balls, six runs, one four, and an unbroken stretch of the fifty-stand during which he scored none of it. A number nine who did not try to score was the innings at the other end, and the card counts it as carefully as it counts the hundred.

Panesar’s line is five balls and 20 minutes. The card’s reviews list shows New Zealand using the system on Broad in the 137th over and losing. Everything that could be tried was, and the two lowest scores in the innings are the reason the result line reads as it does.

What else the card holds

Two hundreds for Fulton in the match. A six-for on each side, Finn and Boult. A 75 that took 352 minutes, and a 110 that took 269. Twelve reviews across the five days, each one logged with the over, the umpire and the outcome. The umpires were Paul Reiffel and Rod Tucker. It is Test number 2084.

What the card holds

A target of 481 and a total of 315 for nine. A hundred by the keeper. Six from 77 balls by the number nine, and 2 from five by the number eleven. A stand of fifty in which one partner made nought. And two lines, drawn and drawn, that depend on the three lowest numbers on the page.

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No. 20 in The Other Guy, a series of 24.

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