When Harry met Ollie

By Aiden McLaughlin

Just as New Zealand threatened to run through the English batting line-up, a 151 run partnership between Harry Brook and Ollie Pope kept the visitors in the hunt.

They kept Tom Latham’s attack at bay for 31 overs this afternoon, before Glenn Phillips made up for an earlier dropped catch by taking an absolute screamer at gully, to see Pope eventually dismissed for 77 off 98 balls, with Tim Southee the bowler.

The Blackcaps will have been pleased with their start to the day. Resuming at 319-8, Southee added five to his overnight score before being caught by Gus Atkinson at deep square off the bowling of Brydon Carse. Will O’Rourke managed to survive 13 balls without scoring, which gave Phillips the opportunity to reach 58 not out off 87 balls, as New Zealand recorded a first innings total of 348. Phillips even managed a Joe Root-esque scoop shot to the unguarded boundary behind him, picking up four runs with little danger.

After that, New Zealand managed to reduce England to 45-3 by lunch. Zak Crawley couldn’t get going, out to a 12 ball duck, lbw to Matt Henry. Debutant Jacob Bethell took 13 balls to get his first Test run. He managed to score two boundaries as he reached 10 off 34 balls before he became Nathan Smith’s first test victim, edging behind to Tom Blundell.

Out came one of England’s all time greats, Joe Root, but Root only lasted four balls without troubling the scorers, before chopping on to his stumps, and suddenly Smith had two in the over to leave the visitors reeling at the break.

Opener Ben Duckett looked to have had a sugar boost during the interval as he came out in the second session showing the crowd more of the fearless shots that have summed up his Test career thus far. After half an hour he was next to go though, O’Rourke taking his first wicket of the innings, Duckett having made 46 off 62 balls.

As Brook and Pope started to build their partnership, Brook had his first piece of luck, dropped by Phillips off the bowling of Smith. It would prove to be an expensive moment for the Blackcaps although he would go on to be dropped a horrendous four times in total.

Brook reached 50 off 64 balls with a six, and Pope’s half century followed soon afterwards off just 59 balls, just before the pair reached their century partnership.

When Pope was out, captain Ben Stokes joined in the fun for England, sharing a 97 run partnership with Brook, as the day finished with England on 319-5, 29 runs behind, Brook not out on 132 and Stokes not out on 37.

Before they got there, another dropped catch, their sixth of the day and perhaps the easiest of all, as Latham dropped his opposite number with 15 minutes to go in the day, as Stokes hit the ball straight at him in the covers. After New Zealand’s much improved fielding in India, they have reverted to the untidiness that has crept into their game in the last couple of years and with that, lost the opportunity to take control of this first Test on day two.

#Statchat

• Harry Brook passed 2,000 Test runs for England today in his 36th innings. Only Herbert Sutcliffe (33 innings) has reached 2,000 Test runs for England in fewer innings
• It was Brook’s seventh Test century, six of which have been overseas
• In five innings against New Zealand, Brook has now scored 461 runs including three centuries
• Today was Joe Root’s first Test duck since Karachi in December 2022. This is his 23rd Test and 40th innings since then
• New Zealand’s six dropped catches today is their second most since records began in 2006 and their most since they dropped seven in a day against the West Indies four years ago

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