Over and almost out

By Aiden McLaughlin

It was a day to forget for the Blackcaps as their chances of a win in the first Test went up in smoke against an English side on fire at Hagley Oval.

The home side were outplayed in all facets of the game, so much so that it looks unlikely that the match will get to the halfway mark on day four.

At lunch on day two, it looked as though New Zealand would be the side pushing for victory on day four, but a total of eight dropped catches in the English first innings, outstanding middle and lower order batting by England plus an inability for New Zealand to form substantial batting partnerships mean that Ben Stokes and his men were well on top at a sold out day three in Christchurch.

Starting the day on 319-5, 29 runs behind the home side, England, through Harry Brook and Ben Stokes,  added 38 from the first six overs, before the second new ball was taken. After a horrendous day in the field yesterday, Latham’s men were at it again with Brook dropped by Phillips having added 15 to his overnight score of 132.

With the deficit met pretty much as soon as the new ball was taken, England went about imposing themselves as they have done so often in this Bazball era. Brook ended up with 171 off 197 balls before finally being caught by Tom Blundell off Matt Henry.

In gloomy conditions, the floodlights were suddenly switched on, but it failed to ignite the bowling. Instead, after Chris Woakes was dismissed for one, Gus Atkinson, a Test match centurion coming out to bat at nine, scored a speedy 48 off 36 balls as England reached 459-8 at lunch, meaning 140 runs had been added in a paltry 23 overs.

Bryson Carse added insult to injury at number 10, making 33 off 24 balls to help get his side to 499 all out, a lead of 151.

As they went out to overhaul that deficit, New Zealand’s batters shouldn’t have had any fear, with the surface still seemingly full of runs; but they knew they would need to get a lead of 300, possibly 350, to have confidence of winning the Test. With that, a strong, steady start was needed. But in the third over, Latham was first to depart, caught at second slip by Brook off the bowling of Woakes. Devon Conway wasn’t too far behind, scoring 8 from his 26 deliveries before Carse took his wicket, the catch by Atkinson.

62-2 at tea turned into 64-3 shortly after the resumption as Rachin Ravindra misjudged a pull shot off Carse, to be caught by Jacob Bethell, who was initially unsighted on the boundary.

Kane Williamson was yet again looking like New Zealand’s great hope, but when he went for 61, it was 133-4 and New Zealand were still 18 behind.

Blundell fell first ball despite a confident looking review by the Wellingtonian, edging Carse to Pope and when Glenn Phillips was next to go, the New Zealand lead stood at two with just four wickets remaining.

The day ended with Daryl Mitchell unbeaten on 31 and Nathan Smith with a solitary run to his name as the Blackcaps edged ahead by just four runs.

At this rate, the English team will be confident of a mid afternoon round of golf somewhere in Christchurch on Sunday, while the Blackcaps will be praying for a miracle.

#Statchat

• Devon Conway has scored 375 runs @ 23.44 in his 16 Test innings in 2024
• He has averaged 10.6 in his last five innings
• Tom Latham’s last five second innings scores have been 0, 0, 86, 1, 1
• Kane Williamson reached the milestone of 9,000 Test runs when he got to 26 today.
• After being dismissed for 61, his Test average over 103 Tests now stands at 54.75

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