Kiwis not fearful of Harmison

14 April 2012

Steve Harmison could be a surprise weapon at Lord's this week, despite his heroics in the Caribbean just a couple of months ago.

Harmison was England's brightest bowling star during the 3-0 Test series win over West Indies and the 23 wickets he captured rocketed him way up the world rankings into third place.

But New Zealand captain Stephen Fleming went into today's First npower Test without having studied any television footage of Harmison's finest international performances.

"I didn't see anything of it, but I can imagine," said Fleming, who was leading the Kiwis to a 1-1 home draw with South Africa while England were triumphing in the Caribbean.

"But I faced him for Middlesex three years ago and for Yorkshire last summer and I think the recipe is the same. I know Harmison has made changes and advanced, which is good for English cricket. He'll be a handful on any pitch but there are number of good bowlers like that around the world."

New Zealand are probably working on the theory it would be wrong to worry too much about Harmison, especially when England have other pace bowlers capable of causing problems.

But if Harmison is able to reproduce the form he showed in the West Indies then he could shock a Kiwi batsman or two. The Durham paceman, who used to struggle for accuracy, hardly bowled a bad delivery during some spells in the Caribbean and, crucially, learned to swing the ball as well as send it down at high speed.

"My feet are well and truly on the ground," said Harmison, despite all the praise he has received since that dramatic seven-for-12 demolition of the West Indies in Jamaica.

"What happened in the Caribbean was great but it's in the past and we have a new challenge."

Arguably the biggest challenge at Lord's is the one confronting England's stand-in skipper Marcus Trescothick.

Opener Trescothick must not only deputise for knee injury victim Michael Vaughan with limited leadership experience behind him but also pit his wits against Fleming, the world's longest-serving Test captain.

"If you lose your captain it has to be a disadvantage because the team has gone well under Michael." said Fleming, who has led the Kiwis since 1996.

"But we probably won't read too much into it because Trescothick has been part of the side for some time. What we are interested in is how it will affect his batting."

Trescothick had a difficult tour of the Caribbean until scoring 88 in the second innings of the final Test in Antigua. But he hit top form again during the one-day international series that followed, making 130 in one knock and 82 in another earlier this month.

"Hopefully, being captain won't affect my batting," said Trescothick. "I've never had problems concentrating on my batting when I've been captain in one-day games or for Somerset, but I realise this may be a bit different because it's a Test."

England (from): M Trescothick (Somerset, capt), A Strauss (Middlesex), M Butcher (Surrey), N Hussain (Essex), G Thorpe (Surrey), A Flintoff ( Lancashire), P Collingwood (Durham), G Jones (Kent, wkt), A Giles (Warwickshire), S Jones (Glamorgan), M Hoggard (Yorkshire), S Harmison (Durham), J Anderson (Lancashire)

New Zealand: S Fleming (capt), M Richardson, N Astle, S Styris, C McMillan, B McCullum (wkt), C Cairns, J Oram, D Vettori, D Tuffey, C Martin Match referee: C Lloyd (West Indies)

Umpires: D Hair (Aus), R Koertzen (South Africa) TV replays: M Benson (England)

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Kiwis not fearful of Harmison

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