England dominated New Zealand as play drew towards a close on the first day of the Wellington Test. Having removed Tom Latham cheaply for the second BlackCap wicket to fall in the innings, Brydon Carse took a spectacular catch to send Rachin Ravindra back shortly after. With Williamson done by a ball from Carse four overs later, New Zealand sent Will O'Rourke out as nightwatch to see out the remaining few overs of play.

With a tailender in, Ben Stokes got creative in an attempt to break through before the end of play. He moved his field around to give him nine catches all close into the stumps. This included a four-person slip cordon and a gully, as well as a player stationed at backward point, and a leg slip, leg gully and a deepish short-leg as the only fielder in front of the bat (just about). This was combined with some short balls and bumpers from Carse.

While O'Rourke saw play out to the end of the day despite the tactic, Daryl Mitchell did not. Faced with a more traditional field to the established batter, Mitchell was dealt a short ball by Carse, and gloved it while trying to defend through to Ollie Pope. He left New Zealand 79-4, and brought Tom Blundell, who had previously been protected by O'Rourke, to the middle.

Ben Stokes employs ‘the anchor’. pic.twitter.com/kfKPu1M3WA

— Jonathan Norman (@FulhamJon) December 6, 2024

Between them, the pair saw the hosts out to the end of the day without losing any more wickets, but New Zealand are well behind in the match. They trail England by 194 runs with five wickets down. An England win in this Test would secure their first series-win in New Zealand since 2008.

England have employed similar unorthodox tactics in the field before under Stokes. The most memorable of these was to Usman Khawaja in the 2023 Ashes. At Edgbaston, with Khawaja already having secured a century, Stokes put in place an umbrella field which was almost a mirror-image of the one he employed in Wellington. On that occasion, there were six catchers in front of the bat in a semi-circle across the square. The plan worked at Edgbaston, Khawaja attempting to hit the ball into the vacant off-side but finding his stumps dismantled.

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