Day three is moving day, they say. Well, start the car; we’re heading to Trent Bridge, because the only place we’re moving is to Test match number two. Forecasts of persistent rain and intermittent showers cast doubt over whether we would see a result in this game. It’s safe to say that, after 17 wickets to go with the 16 yesterday, that outcome is firmly out of the question. What the eventual result will be, however, is still in the balance, though England remain in the driving seat. A lead of 218, seven wickets to win, a fired-up Gus Atkinson, a pitch doing everything a bowler could want: seam, nip, slope, uneven bounce – it’s fair to say they are favourites.
But you never know. The game has seesawed, ping-ponged, flip-flopped one way, then the next. Every foothold in the match has crumbled under opposition fightback.
England have batted themselves into this strong position. It wasn’t as frantic as the day prior; then again it also wasn’t as gloomy. Regardless, it was an innings of grit – the type many England fans were clamouring for, the type not seen in Australia, where folding like a deckchair when times got tough had become the norm for batters during the Stokes-McCullum era.
But, first they had to bowl, and England have had issues with cleaning up tailenders before – fans will still have the scarring from a Mohammad Shami fifty in partnership with Jasprit Bumrah at Lord’s in 2021. However, Josh ‘The Mop’ Tongue has been the antidote in more recent years, cleaning up lower-order batters with seemingly relative ease, or to use a Ben Stokes analogy, feasting on ‘rabbit pie’.
He was quick into his work again. Glenn Phillips’ off stump was sent cartwheeling with his first ball of the day; Nathan Smith followed two overs later to a similar predicament, though the stump held a bit more integrity to stay upright with Smith not offering a shot.
Kyle Jamieson proved more of a stumbling block, and the tactics to him from the other end were perplexing to say the least. Ollie Robinson may have been yesterday’s darling, but bouncing out tailenders is far from his game. Back-to-back lusty pulls for six off the 32-year-old from Jamieson propelled New Zealand over 100, where at one point it looked like they would be bundled out for under 80. One imagines Robinson will have forgotten about that, however, as he completed his five-wicket haul and the innings with the wicket of Matt Henry to commemorate his return to the England side.
So a lead of 27 it was – no doubt sufficient for the bowling innings to be considered successful, especially in such a low-scoring affair, but it could have been even better.
Bat in hand, both Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay were attritional from the outset, perhaps not by choice. Conditions were the same as yesterday: the same dark, low-hanging clouds which oversaw 16 wickets tumble, the same high-quality seam quartet of Jamieson, O’Rourke, Smith, Henry, who had ripped through England’s lineup with ruthless efficiency. If yesterday was as tough as it gets, then this was a close second.
The mark of their success in the first innings was patience. At no point did they chase wickets, in the knowledge that in hitting their lengths, the pitch would give them joy. Their patience was tested here. Early wickets evaded the Kiwis, and with every delivery passing a whisker from the outside edge, and every edge too thick past gully, frustration grew. Duckett eventually perished, flailing a wide delivery into the mitts of Phillips at gully, but England were effectively 99-1 at lunch.
Gay was skittish facing his first few balls; his first two were nicked to Kane Williamson at second slip, but thankfully fell short; on his sixth, he unfurled a booming drive that earned him four of his eight first-innings runs, but made no contact. His first run came amid an LBW appeal as he jammed the bat down to edge onto his pad. In fact, the middle of the bat evaded Gay for much of the morning session – and the afternoon session for that matter.
A graceful cover drive off Henry before lunch and a pair of Joe Root-esque dabs to the third man boundary off Smith shortly after to reach his half century gave short-lived relief from the onslaught of pressure from the New Zealand attack, but moments like those were few and far between.
It was the sort of innings that showed why people are comparing him to the great Sir Alistair Cook. It isn’t just that he presented Gay his cap, or that they went to the same school, or that they have the same sponsor. On his way to 57, the highest individual score of the match to this point, Gay presented all the qualities of the former England captain – fortitude, staying power under pressure and even a languid cut shot.
New Zealand didn’t help themselves, though. Gay was dropped on 20, nicking between Daryl Mitchell and Kane Williamson at first and second slip off, and had they reviewed a not-out LBW decision by Rod Tucker when he was on 24, it would have been overturned.
One can also only spare a thought for Rachin Ravindra. To go with his drop of Harry Brook in the first innings, and golden duck in the second, he added a third clanger to his Test match to forget, putting down a regulation catch at midwicket off the bowling of Jamieson with Ben Duckett sat on 12. Likewise, Devon Conway, who also dropped his second of the match at backward point with Bethell sat on eight.
Even as the lead slowly increased, you never felt like New Zealand were out of it. As skies grew murkier, so did England’s fortunes. Bethell showed determination but was unlucky to get bowled by a daisy cutter from Henry; then four wickets in three overs saw the wheels begin to come off in the England innings.
England were in disarray, New Zealand were rampant, jubilant, cock-a-hoop. Gay nicked through to Blundell off Smith, having battled for 57; Brook was next to go, pinned LBW by an O’Rourke delivery which nipped sharply down the slope; Smith completed the turnaround to stun the Lord’s faithful, removing both Root LBW and bowling Stokes for a duck three balls later.
Jamie Smith provided much-needed stability to avoid a complete collapse alongside Gus Atkinson. It was a timely knock from the wicketkeeper, not only for the team but for himself as the lead surpassed 200. It could be argued that in the first innings, England were too fragile, too timid, and that Smith was the most timid of the lot, shouldering arms to a ball which cannoned into off stump. But at the second time of asking, he struck the balance between intent while maintaining his wicket.
Yet, despite stoic efforts, English batters fell victim to a pitch that was quickly deteriorating, and, in truth, it has been substandard for what you expect from the opening Test of the English summer. A second grubber of the day, this time from Smith, scuttled through his namesake’s defences to disturb the timber, but England were in a strong position even after his departure, and uneven bounce like that on day two can only be a positive for when England come to bowl again.
Atkinson dismissed New Zealand skipper Tom Latham with the third ball of the innings; Tongue got Williamson shortly after, and nightwatchman O’Rourke failed to survive until the close to continue the flavour of the day. If the first two days are anything to go by, it’s unlikely that flavour will be changing – and it’s a tasty one for England.
