New Zealand v England: Yorkshire CCC’s Harry Brook the difference as tourists take series

Once or twice, Brook turned to look at it with a nervous grin as it threatened to knock him off his feet or slice off his head.

Each time it wobbled uncontrollably he inched away from it a bit more, as though it was one of the gin-doddering brigade at Headingley who had come over to speak to him.

Gower, standing back at a safe distance, seemed gloriously unaware of the unfolding drama, as though he was handing out an Oscar at the Hollywood ceremony oblivious to the fact that, as he talked, the theatre was being evacuated due to a calamity.

Thankfully for England and their supporters, the interview was brief and Brook lived to survive another day.

However, for the third and final Test in Hamilton, which starts on Friday night UK time, a ground where the wind is not nearly so strong, New Zealand will have to come up with something better than a swaying signboard in their attempt to combat this fellow as the tourists look to complete a 3-0 whitewash.

It is a measure of Brook’s brilliance, his increasing dominance at home and abroad, that one could legitimately argue that an advertising board propelled by a Force Nine or its equivalent is just as likely to halt him as any type of bowling.

With only Don Bradman boasting a better Test average overseas (102.84 to Brook’s 89.35), one recalls how it used to be written of the great Australian in the 1930s that perhaps he should be handicapped, like billiards players, before his innings, or else blindfolded in an effort to “stop his gallop”.

In the end, England resorted to Bodyline - short balls aimed into the body with a packed leg-side field - in their desperation to cut him down to size, an aspiration they pretty much half-achieved by restricting his average in that infamous 1932-33 series to 56.57 compared to an overall career record of 99.94.

Although The Don remains in a statistical league of his own, techniques and protective gear have moved on somewhat in the intervening hundred years to the extent that Brook would no doubt simply have swatted Larwood and Voce out of the stadium.

The Yorkshire batsman has been the difference in this series, top-scoring with 171 in the eight-wicket victory in Christchurch and striking 123 and 55 in the 323-run win at the Basin Reserve.

That he had his luck in the first match cannot be denied, with New Zealand dropping him five times and effectively offering up that game on a plate with a woeful fielding display.

But his 123 was masterly - set against the backdrop of 26-3 and then 43-4 after England lost the toss in bowler-friendly conditions - and at times contemptuous, not least when dancing down the pitch, outside the leg stump, a la Viv Richards in his pomp, to nonchalantly smash the pace bowlers for six over cover.

It is difficult to think of a more complete batsman in world cricket at present, someone who can seemingly do everything and adapt to any situation, not to mention one who plays for the team as opposed to himself.

Brook did not field on Sunday due to a sore ankle but said that he would be fit for the final Test. His battle with Joe Root at the top of the International Cricket Council rankings is increasingly intriguing; the young pup is closing in on the past master, who restated his claim to pole position with his 36th Test century before the declaration.

Root, 73 going into day three, with England 378-5, the lead already a match-winning 533, went to three figures with an audacious ramp over the wicketkeeper’s head off Will O’Rourke.

It was not a shot that said to Brook “anything you can do, I can do better”, for Root is not like that, but it was one that perhaps whispered gently, “hey, young ‘un, I’m still the No 1, tha knows”.

Competition never hurt the collective cause and there is plenty of that in the England top-order.

To a final second innings score of 427-6, which set New Zealand 583 for victory (they were bowled out for 259 with only Tom Blundell’s 115 detaining them unduly), England were also indebted to a fine 96 from Jacob Bethell, who looks so much more than your white-ball stereotype.

Bethell has appeared a class act at No 3 in the last two games, with an excellent technique to complement the flair.

Although the word seems to be that Jamie Smith will slot straight back into the side for next summer’s Tests, having missed this series due to the birth of his first child, should it really be that straightforward after Bethell’s performances and those of Ollie Pope at No 6? We shall see.

It’s a nice problem to have, to borrow the cliche, and a few short weeks after the wheels came off in Pakistan, this has been an emphatic response by Ben Stokes and his team – albeit in totally different conditions.

With Brook to the fore, they have looked reborn.