<\/p>\n
Brendon McCullum has said that he believed the second Test crowd at the Oval were about to fall in love\u00a0with Sonny Baker, and England\u2019s head coach was right. The 23-year-old \u00addebutant, who\u00a0is playing only his 14th first-class\u00a0game, lit up an intriguing first\u00a0day\u2019s play<\/a>.<\/p>\n New Zealand finished on 291 for seven, and Baker had the pick of the wickets. He had Rachin \u00adRavindra caught in the gully for 33 and Daryl\u00a0Mitchell caught at midwicket for 44 to finish with figures of two for 63. He got a huge roar of appreciation when he walked to the boundary after both dismissals.<\/p>\n \u201cHow do you think I enjoyed it?\u201d Baker said. \u201cIt was brilliant. \u00adAwesome.\u201d He had been too \u00adnervous to eat the night before the game. \u201cEven this morning I could feel the anxiety build up in my stomach, I was trying to play cards on the bus to try\u00a0and take my mind off the \u00adgravity of the situation.<\/p>\n And then the cap \u00adpresentation was probably more emotional than\u00a0anything. I was trying not to get\u00a0emotional from the rest of the lads, but I was struggling a little bit to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n Baker had already played two limited-overs matches for \u00adEngland but had not taken a wicket in either of them. \u201cI think probably my \u00adbiggest\u00a0lesson was that I need to be\u00a0myself,\u201d he said. \u201cI was a little bit\u00a0boring in those matches, I\u2019d watch\u00a0the ball go through to the keeper and think: \u2018Thank goodness there hasn\u2019t been a boundary,\u2019 and I\u2019ve\u00a0never been about \u00adscurrying off\u00a0back to the mark, I\u2019m the biggest\u00a0carry-on\u00a0ever. So surely I should just get stuck in? I made a \u00adcommitment to myself to be \u00adauthentic coming into this.\u201d<\/p>\n The bowler was full of praise for the team\u2019s hierarchy. \u201cThe relaxed nature of the environment really, really, really helps from a nerves point\u00a0of view,\u201d he said. \u201cEverything\u00a0that\u2019s gone on hasn\u2019t been too bad in terms of the impact on us. I think it\u2019s been relatively negligible, to be honest.<\/p>\n I felt pretty calm and, you know, let\u2019s just get stuck in. \u00adEveryone is \u00adtalking about the positives, the\u00a0\u00adopportunities: \u2018Let\u2019s get excited, let\u2019s go for it,\u2019 because there\u2019s no\u00a0point letting all that other stuff influence\u00a0us.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n