Matthew Potts praises England’s aggressive bowling, and admits he had a ‘tear in the eye’ on debut | Cricket News

“I had a bit of a tear in the eye”; Potts had a dream start to his England Test career taking a 4-for on debut including New Zealand captain Kane Williamson; The first Test continues tomorrow, with coverage live on Sky Sports from 10.15 am

Matthew Potts praised England’s aggressive bowling style after taking four wickets on his international debut, admitting that he had a “tear in the eye” ahead of the opening day at Lord’s.

Potts took four wickets on his first international appearance, dismissing New Zealand captain Kane Williamson with the fifth ball of his opening over and then finished his first international bowling appearance on 4-13.

The Durham bowler was given a chance to shine early by newly-appointed captain Ben Stokes and for Potts, it was good to get his first over out of the way to relinquish some of the emotion of the day.

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Matthew Potts takes a wicket with his fifth ball in Test cricket as he dismisses New Zealand captain Kane Williamson for two.

“Yeah it is a massive thing, a lot of my success is down to my family and it is testament to their hard work as well as mine so it was a great achievement and I am really over the moon with it,” said Potts.

“Had a little bit of a tear in the eye early on this morning and I can imagine my mam and dad had a tear in theirs as well.

“Honestly, I think it was the best way it could have worked out rather than have the built-up nerves, watching us bat then not knowing how it was going to go.

“It is best to get it out the way, get the nerves out of the body really, really early.

“It was probably the best way it could have happened.

“The first ball was actually fine, I gathered my thoughts quite well, it was the second ball where I bowled the half-tracker which was the one where I was like ‘I am not sure if I am in here’.

“Once that first bowl was down and in, there is no going back on that moment so it was just kind of into my work and away we went.

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Matthew Potts rips through New Zealand’s batting lineup as he takes a 4-for on his international Test debut.

“I was just trying to run up and bowl it hard on a nice line with a little bit of wobble on the seam and it nipped away quite nicely.

“It was a very good catch and I didn’t think it was carrying at one point. I was thinking I need to bend my back an extra yard here.”

Despite England’s batting collapse in the evening session, the Durham bowler commended England’s attacking bowling style that saw New Zealand topple for 132.

“Yeah it was a great debut and nice to get some wickets early on as well just to settle the nerves,” said Potts.

“Credit to Jimmy and Broady they bowled a fantastic line and length today, we bowled aggressive, we pitched it up there and we looked to take wickets which has been one of our goals going into this game to try and take wickets.

“The main thing that we have looked at is being aggressive and to take wickets and that was the initial plan.

“We tried to push it up half a yard fuller to kind of be attacking and aggressive and it helps when we had the start that we did because it allowed us to push it up early on and put on the pressure.

“I think they had a little bit of a fightback when they came back out but we bowled some nice lengths and we got through that.”

The first England v New Zealand Test continues on Friday, with coverage live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.15am.