'Not something that requires work' – Latham not worried about New Zealand's catching

The lives allowed England to emerge from the first innings of the match with a 151 lead. They were able to cash in on day four, chasing down a modest target of 104 to take a 1-0 series lead.

Players on both sides struggled to see the ball clearly at the Hagley Oval, particularly with the grass banks as packed as they were across all four days. But Latham refused to use that as an excuse for their disappointing display in the field.

“I don’t think it’s something that requires work,” said the skipper, who was guilty of shelling Ben Duckett on 23 (who went on to make 46) and Brook on 41 on day two.

“We certainly put the work in behind the scenes, training days, that sort of thing. It certainly hasn’t been a continuous thing that’s been happening. It’s just one of those games – sometimes when one goes down, they all keep falling. We like to stay nice and level and try not to over-emphasise things.

“Sometimes, some grounds have different challenges with different backgrounds. From our point of view, we’re not looking for excuses.

“We know we need to be better and we’ll hopefully do that in Wellington.”

It was a broadly untidy performance from the Black Caps. Having been put in to bat after Ben Stokes won the toss, they reached 199 for 3 before falling to 348 all out. But for Kane Williamson’s 93 and 58 from Glenn Phillips, it could have been worse. Then came the catching issues, which in turn allowed England to rebuild their first innings from 45 for 3, then 71 for 4.

Latham ceded the team have plenty to tidy up ahead of Friday’s second Test at the Basin Reserve. But he feels the margin of England’s victory, wrapped up inside four days, did not reflect a gap in quality between the two sides.

“To have them 70 for 4 with our tails up, if we take some catches – certainly myself included – things might look slightly differently,” Latham said.

“Even though the result of the game does look quite big, there are small margins in a game of cricket, and unfortunately, things didn’t quite fall the right way. By no means of not trying – boys are putting the effort in and some days, that’s just cricket – it’s the game we play – unfortunately things like that happen.

Will Young, having been dropped for the returning Williamson despite his player of the series display during the 3-0 victory in India, could come in to bolster the batting. Who that is for remains to be seen.

“I certainly believe Tom is our best wicketkeeper-batsman in the country. And we certainly have the belief to give him the backing to play his natural game.

“You’re one innings away from being back in form. He’s putting in the work behind the scenes as much as anyone. We certainly know for him the results are not far away.”

Vithushan Ehantharajah is an associate editor at ESPNcricinfo