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Key events
21st over: England 114-1 (Duckett 49, Bethell 56) Smith bowls short at Duckett, fielders set, daring him to take it on. He takes it on. The ball drops short of the fielder at long leg.
20th over: England 112-1 (Duckett 48, Bethell 55) An inside edge from Bethell sends the ball well wide of the stumps and away for four. Then Duckett smacks the last past backward point for four more.
19th over: England 103-1 (Duckett 44, Bethell 50) Smith bowls a cracker to Duckett, too good for the batter to get anything on it. The bowlers are still occasionally producing really good balls and creating very decent chances. They just haven’t been taking any wickets. A single for each batter, Bethell’s taking him to his second half-century of the series. His scores so far: 10, 50 not out, 16, 50 not out.
18th over: England 101-1 (Duckett 43, Bethell 49) An over in which England take their score into triple figures and their lead past 250. The highest fourth-innings run chases on this ground (and the only four of more than 200): 277-3 by Pakistan in 2003, 234-4 by South Africa in 2004, 217-3 by New Zealand against Bangladesh in 2017, and 215-6 by New Zealand against India in 1998.
17th over: England 93-1 (Duckett 40, Bethell 44) It’s Smith rather than Henry from the other end. Bethell pushes the first back to him, and Smith grabs it and chucks it at the stumps/batter/whatever might be in the way; Bethell’s emergency evasive action sees him end up on his back, and Blundell has to be on the ball to dive and grab it. Then Bethell pushes the second back towards and beyond him for four! And then a big edge! But it flies between keeper and slip and neither moves!
16th over: England 84-1 (Duckett 40, Bethell 35) Southee gets things back under way. His last ball elicits a brief lbw appeal: the umpire’s unimpressed and quite right too, given Duckett got a thick edge on it. In not entirely related news, New Zealand Cricket have unveiled another lovely trophy. Here’s my bit on the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy, which these two teams are scrapping over.
Righty ho, the players are back out and New Zealand have a deep hole to dig their way out of. Let’s see how they get on, shall we?
An email! “There was plenty of criticism of Bethell’s selection ahead of others who have been working for exactly that in the County Championship,” writes John Burton. “I think it should be admitted that he looks the part. He’s not the first example of a successful ‘punt’, suggesting that perhaps there should be a little more restraint from some. Now to cross my fingers and hope that’s not put a curse on him!” There has been growing excitement about him literally since he was about 13, and he does indeed look very decent. But every decent shot he plays makes me feel a little bit more sorry for Jordan Cox, who should be in this team but is instead at home nursing a broken thumb.
LUNCH: England lead by 237
15th over: England 82-1 (Duckett 39, Bethell 34) O’Rourke completes the session, bowling a few short and a few down leg. Duckett gets a single by backing away to allow himself to connect with one of the latter. A phenomenal session for England.
14th over: England 81-1 (Duckett 38, Bethell 34) Southee comes back, and his first ball rears up, flicks Duckett’s edge, or perhaps a glove, and flies way over Blundell and away for four. Quite extraordinary misbehaviour from the ball there. Complete disregard for social niceties. The last ball of the over also goes for four, this time off the very middle of Bethell’s bat and thence past mid-on.
13th over: England 72-1 (Duckett 33, Bethell 30) Three singles off Smith, a relatively sedate over as minds perhaps turn towards luncheon.
12th over: England 69-1 (Duckett 31, Bethell 29) O’Rourke bangs one in short, Duckett takes it on, and he top-edges over the cordon for four. Next delivery he backpedals a couple of paces and cuts a ball that was heading well wide of leg stump for a single. Then the last ball beats Bethell completely; there’s still life in this pitch for the seamers.
11th over: England 62-1 (Duckett 25, Bethell 28) Chance! Of sorts! Smith to Bethell, who gets a chunky edge that sends it wide of Latham at second slip. I think it just about carried, passing the fielder at ankle height, but he’s nowhere near it and really it would have been a phenomenal catch had he pulled it off. Which, just to be clear, he did not. At all. From there it goes for four, and a couple of balls later Bethell heaves his second six of the morning over midwicket.
10th over: England 50-1 (Duckett 24, Bethell 18) Duckett has another go at that scoop, this time off O’Rourke. Like his previous attempt a few overs ago, he misses it entirely.
9th over: England 50-1 (Duckett 23, Bethell 18) Dropped! Smith’s first ball just tickles Duckett’s edge on its way down leg and Blundell dives to his right and gets webbed glovetips to it, but is not even close to actually catching it. A hard chance, to be sure, but that goes down as a drop.
8th over: England 49-1 (Duckett 22, Bethell 18) Henry bowls one short, into Duckett’s body. Duckett dismisses it for six, in the process taking England’s lead over 200. Cricviz gives the tourists a 92% chance of winnings this game.
7th over: England 40-1 (Duckett 13, Bethell 18) Nathan Smith comes in, and Bethell smites him over deep backward square leg for six! He spends the remainder of the over admiring it.
6th over: England 34-1 (Duckett 13, Bethell 12) Duckett skitters sideways and attempts – but completely misses – a scoop against Henry. “I really feel that all the interminable talk about who should bat at No3 isn’t really grappling with the fact that under current circumstances the England No3 is a de facto opener.” There is a long-term top-order issue. England have any number of proven or promising middle-order batters, and basically some of them need to play in the top three. Those who end up doing so don’t like it particularly, but it’s better than not playing at all.
5th over: England 30-1 (Duckett 11, Bethell 11) Southee to Duckett, who advances a couple of twinkle-toed steps and clubs down the ground for four. As the over ends Bethell has 11, Duckett has 11, Bethell has faced 11 and Duckett has faced, disappointingly, 12. “There’s no greater conceit than judging pitches,” writes Gary Naylor, apropos my preamble, posted about 90 minutes and many, many wickets ago. “Good to hear our next Henry V has no truck with such alchemists. See ball, hit ball – that’s our Harry. It won’t always work, but, when it does, don’t drop the chances.” That’s precisely it. I worry it would be a bad idea to unnecessarily force other thoughts into his head.
4th over: England 23-1 (Duckett 5, Bethell 10) Henry to Duckett, who attacks and lifts over mid-off. He doesn’t really get hold of it, though, and it’s chased down before it can limp to the rope. The next is clipped off his pads, nicely timed, and past mid-on by Bethell for four, and he pulls the last to the rope for four more.
3rd over: England 12-1 (Duckett 2, Bethell 2) Maybe we can all just calm down a bit, eh? Just for a little while?
NOT OUT!
It very much did hit the bat.
REVIEW! Southee thinks he’s trapped Bethell here. The umpire doesn’t
New Zealand send this upstairs. Looks a decent shout if it didn’t hit the bat.
2nd over: England 10-1 (Duckett 1, Bethell 1) And so the first hour of day two comes to an end, two balls into the second over of the game’s third innings. In that time we had 10.1 overs, 47 runs and six wickets. It’s fair to say the game’s moving on.
WICKET! Crawley c Conway b Henry 8 (England 9-1)
Henry’s got Crawley again! He clips a half-volley pretty much straight to Devon Conway at midwicket, and his ludicrously awful run against Matt Henry in this series continues!
1st over: England 8-0 (Crawley 8, Duckett 0) Southee starts things off, and Crawley smears the first ball of the innings through cover for four! Then the second ball of the innings goes the same way! He tries to do it again off the last, but picks out the fielder at cover.
The players are on their way back out for the start of England’s second innings. A 155-run lead on this surface, and two seamers in the highest of spirits, is a significant advantage. “I was following the OBO and just switched on live streaming to see Atkinson’s hat-trick ball. Nice bit of double bluff, setting the field for a short ball and utterly foxing Tim Southee, a high-class number 11,” writes Colum Fordham. “England really do seem to have found two jewels in Atkinson and Carse, never mind Wood and Archer. What a topsy turvy state of affairs with the Kiwis whitewashing India away from home and now in serious danger of succumbing in the second test to England on their home turf. Who writes the scripts?”
It’s out! Gus Atkinson ends the innings with a hat-trick!
34.5 overs: New Zealand 121-7 (Phillips 16, Smith 10) That is phenomenal! And England end the first innings with a 155-run lead! The ball was smashing into middle and leg, the review was only ever delaying the inevitable, and the innings has ended in a hurry. An over the started with a shot from Smith that was just dismissive, pinging the ball through the covers for four, continues with Atkinson doing the dismissing, and is destined never to end.
The TV umpire is checking it, but the players are already on their way off the field!
WICKET! Southee lbw b Atkinson 0 (New Zealand 125 all out)
He’s only gone and done it! Though Southee’s reviewed because, well, why not, so let’s see…
WICKET! Henry c Duckett b Atkinson 0 (New Zealand 125-9)
Matt Henry goes first ball! He’s beaten by bounce and pace, fending to gully where Ben Duckett takes a low catch, and Atkinson’s on a hat-trick!
WICKET! Smith b Atkinson 14 (New Zealand 125-8)
Smith tries to leave one and fails, the ball clipping the toe of his bat and ricocheting into middle stump!
34th over: New Zealand 121-7 (Phillips 16, Smith 10) The Wizard tries to cast a spell, Woakes replacing Carse in the day’s first bowling change. It’s fair to say he doesn’t immediately succeed: Phillips pushes one back past him for four, and then the next between gully and point with similar reward, Phillips doubling his score in the space of two balls to become the (joint) third-highest scorer of the innings.
33rd over: New Zealand 113-7 (Phillips 8, Smith 10) Atkinson continues, and Phillips cracks one past point for four, nicely done. News of Wellington’s worrying weather has not impressed everyone: “Currently following your reports in Co Mayo, in the no power dark, as we’re lashed by the latest Atlantic storm to roll in!” writes Joe Corrigan. “Severe gales? Is that all? The Kiwis don’t know how lucky they are this weekend,” writes John Starbuck, who could be pretty much anywhere in the northern hemisphere. If it helps, my water supply has been completely borked for hours.
32nd over: New Zealand 108-7 (Phillips 3, Smith 10) Carse’s first delivery careens back into Phillips and very nearly slices him in two. Later Smith gets off the mark with four, hit with very little power but obviously nice timing and off it trundles past mid-off. He was clearly saving the power for the next one, which he bludgeons over deep square leg for six!
31st over: New Zealand 97-7 (Phillips 2, Smith 0) Just the one single off Atkinson’s over, most of which to be frank was bowled while I was still thinking about the previous one.
30th over: New Zealand 96-7 (Phillips 1) A Goldilocks over from Carse: the first is too full=, and Blundell punches through cover for a couple, and the next is too short, and Blundell pulls for four. Then he gets one just right.
WICKET! O’Rourke lbw b Carse 0 (New Zealand 96-7)
And another one! The nightwatchperson trudges off with a 26-ball duck after being trapped profoundly leg before wicket!
WICKET! Blundell b Carse 16 (New Zealand 95-6)
That’s lovely from Carse, similar to the one that was too good for Kane Williamson yesterday (but turned out to be a no ball), and it’s too good for Blundell as well, doing just enough to beat his defensive push and clipping the top of off.
29th over: New Zealand 89-5 (Blundell 10, O’Rourke 0) A single for Blundell, who roars into double figures off his 16th ball, and three more for O’Rourke who has now faced 25 without scoring. The New Zealand Met Service helpfully publish laundry drying times, which tomorrow they put at between one and three hours. Morning showers unhelpful; severe gales quite handy.
28th over: New Zealand 88-5 (Blundell 9, O’Rourke 0) A Carse maiden to O’Rourke, who’s well beaten by a yorker that flies six inches wide of off stump. Meanwhile Ian Rivett sends me tomorrow’s forecast from the New Zealand Met Service, which sounds concerning: “Showers developing in the morning. Northwesterlies, rising to severe gale in exposed places in the afternoon gusting 140 km/h.”
27th over: New Zealand 88-5 (Blundell 9, O’Rourke 0) Gus Atkinson to Blundell, whose focus is very much on defence. The best ball catches the inside edge and from there hits the batter in the thigh. There’s a couple off the fifth.
“If every partnership gets us 20-30 that gets us pretty close to their score with hopefully some good seam bowling conditions this arvo for us,” says Nathan Smith. “Probably today you’ll see the last of the seam-friendly conditions before it flattens out.” Let’s see, shall we?
Lord David Gower on the telly is sounding quite croaky this morning. He’ll be positively gravel-voiced after a long day’s commentary. The players are currently loitering on the boundary edge, readying themselves for action.
“Apparently it’s said here that ‘you can’t beat Wellington on a good day’,” writes Mark Hollingsworth. “Well it’s pretty well perfect today, so let’s hope England can put a dent in that local theory …”
Ah, so you’re on the ground, you lucky thing. Google tells me it’s cloudy in Wellington today, but the TV pictures suggest it’s glorious sunshine.
What with the Guardian & Observer NUJ chapel being on strike most staff were not working yesterday, so here’s PA Media on Harry Brook:
Hello world!
Well, then. This feels like the day this Test, and with it the outcome of the series, will be decided. New Zealand start it on 86 for five, still 194 behind, and with 15 wickets falling on day one everything is scuttling along at great pace. With Will O’Rourke, who has so far taken 16 balls over his zero after coming in as nightwatchperson, nursing a Test average of three the responsibility falls on Tom Blundell and Glenn Phillips to dig their side back into the contest.
Day one featured another spectacular success for Harry Brook, whose 123 took his average in away Tests to 91.50, 11 and a bit behind Don Bradman and 22 and a bit ahead of anyone else (to have played at least 10 away innings) in the history of Test cricket (for completeness, his home average of 38.05 is good enough for 311th in that list).
He’s obviously a wonderful player, but given that he is assumed by many to be the team’s next captain, having dipped his toe into the captaincy waters across this English summer, I found his interview with the BBC for today’s TMS Podscast interesting: along the way he admits that “to be honest I try to stay away from the toss talks and chats” and also that “I’m the worst at judging pitches”. His uncluttered thinking – inasmuch as he thinks at all rather than simply relying on instinct he thinks about his own job and not about anyone else’s – is clearly one of the reasons behind his success and perhaps when Ben Stokes’s time comes to an end England will be better off looking elsewhere.
Anyway, and most importantly, welcome!