Patrick Collins: Joe Root helps to lift gathering gloom as New Zealand hold the upper hand at Lord's

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The floodlights were piercing the sullen clouds and a wintry chill was settling upon London NW8 when the England batsmen trudged off. They made an unlikely pair; Ian Bell had been pressed into action while full of ’flu, and Steven Finn was glancing fearfully at the tale the scoreboard was telling. 

After last night’s precipitate clatter of wickets, it is entirely possible that England will lose this Test match today. It is equally possible that the glad, confident Ashes summer will not work out in quite the way the nation was expecting.

Time to lift the gathering gloom. Time to seek reasons for solid optimism. Time to remember Joe Root.

No ordinary Joe: England batsman Joe Root attacks the New Zealand bowlers during the third day's play

There was a telling moment in late afternoon, when New Zealand’s left-arm spinner Bruce Martin dropped yet another delivery woefully short. The young batsman opened his body, rocked on to his back foot and pulled the loose ball with disdainful authority to the mid-wicket boundary.

High in the grandstand, a man who once opened the batting for England expressed what the whole of Lord’s was thinking. ‘I believe we’ve found one’, he said. ‘I really believe we’ve found one’.

Experience teaches that premature exposure to excessive praise can be the ruin of precocious talent, but on a constantly changing yet ceaselessly absorbing day of Test cricket, Root looked remarkably like the real thing.

One of sport’s most rewarding experiences is the sight of a young player who appears entirely at home at the highest level. At 22, Root performed like a player whose future is already taking shape.

Agony: Joe Root shows his frustration after being bowled by New Zealand's Tim Southee

The higher the bar is raised, the more comfortably he clears it.

When he was at his most assertive yesterday, Lord’s was full of Yorkshire voices claiming a county’s credit for this latest contribution to England’s cause. Noses were tapped, heads were sagely nodded.

They knew, you see; they weren’t surprised at his emergence. In fact, they were far more surprised when, having scored 71 off 120 balls, Tim Southee found the inside edge which took his middle stump.

But by then, his credentials had been presented. His partnership with Jonathan Trott had temporarily steadied the ship and plotted a confident course.

Root and Trott, they are names without frill or flourish, and together they seemed to have forged the kind of alliance which should have laid unassailable foundations for an English victory. 

Hitting out: Jonathan Trott enjoyed a good partnership with Joe Root on day three

In normal times, Alastair Cook would have filled this role, but for once the skipper fell short of expectations. Great deeds are routinely expected of Cook, such is the weight of his Test record, and we sensed that this was a day when the entire ground was expecting him to assemble a mountainous total.

In fact, he appeared insecure from his first ball, when a vague waft produced an almost interminable trial by replay. Then, at 21, he chased a swinging delivery from Trent Boult with bat adrift from body, and Dean Brownlie seized the catch at third slip.

Suddenly, the doubts came clamouring. The truth is that Lord’s, in the face of all the recent evidence, had expected New Zealand to roll over and die.

Lord's failure: England captain Alastair Cook can only look on as Dean Brownlie catches him out during day three

Bravely, of course, and after a suitable struggle. But they must know their place in the international pecking order, and by tradition that place is some way below England.

Sadly, nobody had seen fit to inform the visitors of this eternal truth.

Led with flair and verve by Brendan McCullum, and possessing bowlers of pace and resource, they simply refused to be discounted. And when Matt Prior trudged away late in the day, having flailed desperately and suffered the rare indignity of a Test pair, the advantage lay with the Kiwis.

The silence of Lord’s spoke more loudly than the earlier clamour. Reality began to bite.

In the Harris Garden behind the pavilion, where glasses of MCC champagne were selling for £13.50 and recession is a distant stranger, worried frowns replaced confident grins.

Kiwi joy: New Zealand's Kane Williamson celebrates with captain Brendon McCullum, who has led the side with flair and verve, after bowling Jonathan Trott

A cabal of middle-aged men, florid and forceful, talked earnestly over bottles of red wine. Younger men, with MCC ties they may have worn since birth, told each other they had seen this coming.

They were not believed.

For if England in general, and Jimmy Anderson in particular, cannot conjure some small miracles today, then all is changed.

New Zealand may well be a better side than Australia, but if they can inflict such damage then the Aussies will be walking with a new and unexpected spring in their stride.

Time will tell, New Zealand may well collude in a collapse of their own, this Test may yet be won.

But for the moment, English cricket is consoling itself with the thought that, if all else should fail, we shall still have the extravagant talent of young Joe Root.

The way things are working out, we shall need it.

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