Key events
36th over: New Zealand 120-8 (Phillips 30, Jamieson 2) So far, Jamieson is being circumspect. He has clearly decided that he’s a proper batter now and needs to play himself in.
An interesting point comes in from Gary Naylor. “I’ve long held the belief,” he says, “that pitch reading is akin to astrology – an amusing distraction that should never be taken seriously, yet inexplicably is by some people. Did any of the seers predict anything like this on Thursday morning? I certainly don’t recall, the ‘Look up, not down’ at Lord’s the guideline. And if you couldn’t pick this pitch as being a shitheap challenging surface, when can you?”
35th over: New Zealand 118-8 (Phillips 29, Jamieson 1) So here’s Kyle Jamieson, who top-scored in NZ’s first innings with a buccaneering 38. We’ve only seen three sixes in this Test and Jamieson bagged the lot of them.
WICKET! N Smith c J Smith b Atkinson 4 (NZ 116-8)
One brings two! And one Smith sees off another as Atkinson goes wobble-seam and draws a regulation nick.
Drinks: England back on top
34th over: New Zealand 111-7 (Phillips 27) Conway had just tucked Stokes for four to bring up the fifty partnership – 52 off 10.4 overs. He scored twice as fast with Phillips as he had with anyone else. But then he tried to clip a straight, full ball and edged it off the back of the bat to gully, where Bethell, such a natural in the field, swooped to claim a low catch. So Stokes has his first scalp of the match and England are back on course for a big win.
WICKET! Conway c Bethell b Stokes 41 (NZ 111-7)
Just when England need something special, Jacob Bethell supplies it with a diving catch at gully.
33rd over: New Zealand 105-6 (Conway 37, Phillips 26) Atkinson, bowling to Conway, manages a maiden. England have slowed the run rate in the past two or three overs, though I suspect they’d happily trade a few more fours for the wicket of Phillips.
The next email is short and to the point. “Hello Tim. Bring on Bashir! Regards, Matthew Doherty.”
32nd over: New Zealand 105-6 (Conway 37, Phillips 26) A ball from Stokes keeps low, as so many have, but Conway is able to get down to it. He has a crabby stance, not easy on the eye but very handy on this track.
“A big shout-out,” says Adam Simpson, “to my old mate Rob in Istanbul (over 27). My wife Çağla also says a big hello to him and his wife, Nuriye. We have an extremely informal and light-hearted running competition to see if we can both get mentioned on the same OBO. We’ve managed it more than once or twice down the years!” It looks as if you may also have something in common on the marital front. I’d like to know it this is a coincidence or a conspiracy.
31st over: New Zealand 104-6 (Conway 36, Phillips 26) It’s a double change as Gus Atkinson takes over from Tongue at the pavilion end. Conway tries another stroke in front of the wicket, an off-drive that brings him three. Phillips lives dangerously as Atkinson’s high arm exploits the uneven bounce in this fickle surface, but he survives.
30th over: New Zealand 101-6 (Conway 33, Phillips 26) Stokes makes his first bowling change of the day, taking Robinson off and bringing himself on. So far in this match, he’s been the only bowler apart from the injured Matt Henry not to be much of a threat. Phillips sizes him up and then plays a classy back-foot flick to the rope in front of the Grandstand. That brings up New Zealand’s hundred. If they’d sent Phillips in as a nighthawk on Friday, instead of O’Rourke as a nightwatchman, they might be cruising to victory.
29th over: New Zealand 96-6 (Conway 32, Phillips 22) Conway is now so relaxed that he’s prepared to hit the ball in front of the wicket. Facing Tongue, he plays a straight push back past the bowler towards the pavilion. On most outfields that would be four, but Conway has to settle for three.
Tongue then raps Phillips on the pad with a big inswinger. There’s only a stifled appeal and Rod Tucker, standing in his 100th Test, shakes his head. Stokes, to his team mates’ surprise, calls for a review. Sure enough, it did too much and was missing leg stump.
28th over: New Zealand 92-6 (Conway 29, Phillips 21) Robinson, with Smith back up to the stumps, restricts each batter to a single. Conway again tries to withdraw the bat and again isn’t quick enough, but this time the deflection goes downwards and the ball bounces before it reaches the slips.
27th over: New Zealand 90-6 (Conway 28, Phillips 20) Tongue continues, keeping Phillips quiet for three balls before he manages a square drive for two. It’s been a different game since he came in.
Meanwhile an email arrives that has a lot going on it. “How’s the weather looking at Lord’s?” asks Rob Lewis. (Grey, but dry.) “It’s a glorious day here in Istanbul. Shame I’m conducting oral exams for Cambridge University.
“A shout out to my wife Nuriye, who is picking tea 1,100km east of here on the Black Sea coast in her parents’ fields, probably dodging showers like they were in London yesterday.”
If there was a prize for the most interesting mention of tea in a cricket email, Rob would have won it.
26th over: New Zealand 87-6 (Conway 27, Phillips 18) Phillips, not bothering to move his feet, clubs a length ball from Robinson past mid-off. He adds a single, so does the newly liberated Conway, and this partnership has raced to 29, which makes it the equal highest of the innings. Jamie Smith retreats to stand next to the slips, as if to concede that New Zealand have seized the initiative. Phillips celebrates with another crunching drive. This is more like it!
25th over: New Zealand 77-6 (Conway 26, Phillips 9) Conway, facing Tongue, decides that he may as well come to the party. First he steers a four to gully’s right, then he tries to leave a lifter, reacts too late, pats it to Harry Brook at second slip – and is dropped as Brook can only tip it over the bar.
24th over: New Zealand 71-6 (Conway 20, Phillips 9) Robinson continues, moving the ball both ways. Phillips finds the boundary in no time – but only off the inside edge. And again, with his first shot of some authority, punched past cover. “You need to be playing Twenty20 here,” says Stuart Broad, and Phillips, unlike the rest of the Kiwis, seems to agree. He’s been there five minutes and has already made more runs than Latham, O’Rourke, Ravindra and Mitchell put together.
23rd over: New Zealand 63-6 (Conway 20, Phillips 1) Glenn Phillips, so unfazed in the first innings, starts purposefully again with a clip for a single. But he’s coming in very low in the order… Conway needs to stay with him.
Josh Tongue spoke to Sky this morning and revealed one of the secrets of his success: at his mark, he has a smiley face, “in case I get a bit down”. Not that he’s needed in this match.
WICKET! Blundell LBW b Tongue 4 (New Zealand 58-6)
Here we go! Tongue nips one back down the slope, Blundell is pinned on the crease and although he discusses it with Conway, he doesn’t bother to review.
22nd over: New Zealand 55-5 (Conway 19, Blundell 2) Robinson is on the spot but Tom Blundell keeps the first three balls out easily enough, even with Jamie Smith breathing down his neck.
The players are out there. And the ball is in the hands of Ollie Robinson, who has an over to finish.
The first email of the day comes from John Starbuck. “Good morning. In the Preamble you aver that England’s three main seamers will get the job done.” I’m not a betting man, but I’d like to know what the odds may be on Shoaib Bashir getting an over or two?”
Good question! Almost as long as the odds on an email including the word “aver”.
By the way, if you make the minimum 50 wickets rather than 80, Robinson is no longer the best in the last 100 years. He’s not even the best in this England dressing-room: it’s Gus Atkinson, with Josh Tongue just behind him. And, rather more surprisingly, Brydon Carse is in the top four.
What about Jimmy Anderson, or Ian Botham? Not even in the top 20. Full list here.
On Sky, Mike Atherton has been chairing a chat about the papers. With actual printed copies! Good to see that they still have a role to play.
Atherton homed in on a great finding in the Sunday Times. Ollie Robinson is now England’s best bowler, by Test strike rate, since the first world war (min. 80 wickets). Robinson has a wicket every 47 balls, two fewer than the late, great Fred Trueman. If only Fred were here now, on the radio, to tell us how much harder it was in his day and he just doesn’t know what’s going off on Stats Guru.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to a Test that has somehow dribbled into a fourth day. We’ve had a wicket roughly every four overs, but the rain gods have allowed only five sessions’ play. England are well on top, yet they could still lose.
They need to take five more wickets before New Zealand score 199 more runs. So far, between the showers, the New Zealanders have managed only 168 for 15 wickets, so 199 for four may sound like a stretch. But there’s more batting left than you might think because they sent in a nightwatchman, way back on Friday evening.
They’ve got an opener, Devon Conway, who’s still there and who made 200 on his Test debut at Lord’s. He may have added only 23, 3, 13, 1 and 19* at this address since, but that could mean that he’s overdue another big one. And the two men who bashed most of the runs in NZ’s first innings, Glenn Phillips and Kyle Jamieson, are still to come. It’s as if their captain, Tom Latham, has done by accident what Don Bradman once did deliberately and got the batting order the wrong way up.
On a pitch that has been dry, uneven and widely derided, England’s bowlers have only had to look at the off bail to be lethal. Ollie Robinson, when he switched to the Nursery End yesterday and Jamie Smith stood up to the stumps, promptly took two wickets in four balls. He has seven for 57 in the match, Gus Atkinson four for 25, Josh Tongue four for 55. Only Ben Stokes (none for 22) has been firing blanks.
Robinson has never taken eight wickets in a Test, let alone ten, so he will still be hungry today, and the chances are that he, Atkinson and Tongue will finish the job. But a low-scoring match can be won by one fearless knock, as England found in the last first Test they played, at Perth, when Travis Head beat them at their own game. So you never know.
Play resumes at 11am BST and the forecast, thankfully, is as dry as the pitch.