Bethell’s century, which took the tourists to 302-8 and a lead of 119, makes the 22-year-old the seventh youngest man to score a Test hundred for England against Australia.<\/p>\n
Having come in during the first over, he strolled to the nineties but 29 balls passed with Bethell a hit away from a century.<\/p>\n
Harry Brook, England’s vice-captain, wafted and waved at Mitchell Starc bouncers at the other end. Bethell’s dad, Graham, took deep breaths in the stands. <\/p>\n
It was the man that mattered most who appeared the calmest of all.<\/p>\n
Bethell had, of course, been here before.<\/p>\n
In November 2024, he reached 96 against New Zealand in his second Test, only to nick behind off Tim Southee.<\/p>\n
His response afterwards, that it would have been “flair” to “smack that through the covers” hinted at Bethell’s freer side – the one that had him pictured doing the YMCA during England’s ill-fated mid-Ashes trip to Noosa.<\/p>\n
This hundred showed all of his maturity that is so highly regarded by England – and what persuaded them to make him their youngest captain on last year’s white-ball tour of Ireland. <\/p>\n
“He played in a way that Test cricket has been played for many generations,” said former England captain Michael Vaughan on Test Match Special. “You respect the ball and have good technique.<\/p>\n
“It was a technical masterclass. A masterclass in composure and calmness. <\/p>\n
“The strokeplay, when he got a chance to score, he didn’t try to overhit it. We have seen a batting masterclass from someone who let the ball come.<\/p>\n
“He didn’t hit the ball in the air that often. It was a throwback.”<\/p>\n
Though the landmark came with a flick for four over mid-wicket off Beau Webster’s spin, Bethell’s first ton was moulded in a style from the old school.<\/p>\n
While defending the danger area around his stumps, he timed back-foot punches rather than slashing cuts and clipped from his pads to keep the score moving.<\/p>\n
A glorious on-drive off Michael Neser was the highlight and a dismissive pull off Cameron Green through mid-wicket a statement.<\/p>\n
“I had two shots and a half,” said Cook, famed for his cuts, pulls and clips, on TNT Sports.<\/p>\n
“Four shots would help anyone be world-class. He has guts and determination. <\/p>\n
“There were some really tough balls but he has a nice solid technique down the ground.<\/p>\n
“Clip, pull, drive and cut. A classic number three innings.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bethell’s century, which took the tourists to 302-8 and a lead of 119, makes the 22-year-old the seventh…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":221083,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":{"0":"post-221082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-new-zealand","9":"tag-newzealand","10":"tag-nz","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}