Vaughan questions England’s safety first approach

Former captain Michael Vaughan believes England’s decision-making has been “a bit safe and a bit fearful” after Cook first opted not to enforce the follow-on when it was available on the third evening and then batted on until the Black Caps’ winning target was unfeasibly high.

Vaughan had no issue with the follow-on decision but believes England could have been more attacking in the field.

“If they’re honest, and they should be, they will look at where they could improve tactically. With strategic aggression they could have won this game already,” said Vaughan.

“I think batting again was a good decision but they could have been a bit more proactive (in the field).

“Everyone should have been catching: try to force the batsman into an error. I just thought it was a bit safe yesterday

“It would worry me if they don’t sit in the dressing room and accept they’ve played it a bit too safe and been a bit fearful.

“They didn’t get it right and you’ve got to be honest as players.

“There wasn’t many occasions where Swann had four men around the bat. That’s why you bat so long, to allow yourself periods with men around the bat.”

Vaughan’s predecessor as England captain, Nasser Hussain, felt more sympathy with Cook.

He said: “When it’s your team you don’t press G for gamble.

“Flower, Strauss and Cook, they’ve been successful by first being cautious, is there any surprise at what’s happened in this Test match?”

With the rain relenting long enough to squeeze in enough play, England secured victory to vindicate Cook.

New Zealand started the final day on 158-6, leaving England four wickets short of outright success, and eventually subsided for 220 in a belated afternoon session. James Anderson took the final wicket with his third ball of the day – a 307th Test scalp that takes him level with Fred Trueman and joint third on England’s all-time list.

Graeme Swann was also crucial, taking two wickets to finish with 6-90 in the innings and career-best match figures of 10-132.

Swann had never taken a Test wicket at Headingley before and even found himself left out when South Africa visited last summer.

But he proved definitively that his recent elbow injury has been a success.

The seam attack of Stuart Broad, Steven Finn and Anderson also chipped in with a wicket each to end a match that, for all the talk of negative decision-making, also saw Yorkshire’s Joe Root score his maiden Test century and Cook register his 25th.

After a 45-minute rain delay at the start of the day, Swann mustered a stifled appeal for lbw against Brendon McCullum in his second over, but it was Broad who got the ball rolling for England.

He had already taken McCullum’s off stump out of the ground, but only after the distracted batsman had pulled away to render the ball dead.

McCullum was on his way seconds later though, getting the toe of the bat to a low full toss and seeing Broad get down quickly to gather a fine return catch.

That left Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell together at the crease and they quickly went on the attack. Southee lifted Broad back over his head for four and then greeted Finn’s arrival by pulling his first delivery for six.

He had 24 when Jonathan Trott put down a tough one-handed chance off Swann at slip and cashed in by slog-sweeping Swann for his second maximum.

Bracewell was quick to join in, driving Finn through the covers and then adding a six of his own with a powerful pull.

Southee’s fun ended when he nicked Swann low to Trott’s left and this time he clung on to a smart catch, ending a frenzied 56-run stand.

Bracewell was 19 not out with Neil Wagner yet to score when rain forced an early lunch. It persisted and the start of the afternoon session was delayed by an hour and 50 minutes.

DRS proved Bracewell had not touched a Swann delivery with his bat but the spinner had his man four balls later, Ian Bell taking a wonderful low catch at silly point with minimal reaction time.

Finn almost finished it when Wagner edged inches short of Cook at first slip and in the end it was left to Anderson to bring about the end.

He needed just two sighters before he took the edge of Trent Boult’s bat, Matt Prior taking the catch.

In all, England had taken 21.5 overs to wrap things up.