Close New Zealand 306 (Blundell 138, Conway 77, Robinson 4-54) and 63 for 5 (Broad 4-21) need another 331 runs to beat England 325 for 9 dec and 374 (Root 57, Brook 54, Foakes 51, Tickner 3-55)
Four wickets, four bowled, all four through the gate in the space of 27 balls. For a time it seemed inevitable that Broad was about to surge to a five-wicket haul in space of a single spell for the eighth time in his remarkable career. Instead New Zealand regrouped to a degree by the close, to limp to 63 for 5 but with their dim-and-distant target of 394 little more than a pipe-dream.
Ironically, the only New Zealander to get the better of Broad on a memorable third day was the same man whose bowling figures went down in history for a very different reason. After his comic antics with the bat on the second evening, Broad was quickly bombed out by a bouncer in Neil Wagner’s second over of the day – a rare personal high spot for Wagner, who bore the brunt of England’s subsequent batting onslaught with the eye-watering figures of 13-0-110-2, the second-most expensive economy rate in Test history.
Wagner’s indefatigability has been a defining feature of New Zealand’s World Test Championship-winning team – but this was a beasting like few others. After resuming with an overnight lead of 98, England clattered a remarkable 158 runs in the morning session, but leaked five wickets in the process – leading the team to apply a relative hand-brake throughout the afternoon, eventually landing their innings on an imposing 374, 20 minutes after the dinner break, like a glider pilot on a bombed-out runway. With the floodlights just kicking in as they did so, it meant New Zealand were faced with batting through the twilight, just as they had done on the first day. Broad made it his mission to ensure that they couldn’t.
With the final ball of his second over, Broad got his angles spot on. Devon Conway, so steadfast in New Zealand’s first innings, drove without due care as the ball kept shaping back in through his defences, rattling the top of middle to depart for 2. In the process, Broad put the seal on his ascent, with James Anderson, to the top of the partnership pile – it was their 1002nd wicket in 15 years as a Test-match pairing, surpassing the mighty Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
This one, from over the wicket to the right-hander, was pitched on the perfect in-between length, zippy enough to cause even a batter of Williamson’s class some indecision. Which way would it jag? Back into the stumps as it happened, bursting through a half-committed front foot to thump the top of off. Williamson’s duck completed a bleakly fallow game in his first home match back in the ranks, and more or less confirmed his team’s futile situation.
And of course he wasn’t done yet – although there was a brief interlude to his monologue as Ollie Robinson, England’s star of the first innings, served a reminder of his own excellence under the lights, with a zippy lifter from over the wicket, across the bows of the left-handed Henry Nicholls to kiss the edge through to Ben Foakes to make it 27 for 4.
One run and three overs later, Broad had his fourth, as Tom Blundell – New Zealand’s first-innings centurion – played down the wrong line of another inexorable inducker to cue more pandemonium from England’s gleeful fielders.
Innings break England 325 for 9 dec and 374 (Root 57, Brook 54, Foakes 51, Tickner 3-55) lead New Zealand 306 (Blundell 138, Conway 77, Robinson 4-54) by 393 runs
New Zealand will need to pull off the highest successful chase in their Test history after another extraordinary English batting performance on the third afternoon at Mount Maunganui – one in which Neil Wagner was left nursing one of the most expensive bowling analyses of all time.
England were bowled out shortly after the dinner break, with New Zealand set 394 to win. Their runs were shared all down the order, including four scores between Ollie Pope’s tempo-setting 49 from 46 balls, and Joe Root’s 57 from 62. The only man in the top nine who failed to reach double-figures, in fact, was the self-styled “Nighthawk”, Stuart Broad, who was bombed out by a bouncer in Wagner’s second over of the day – a rare personal high spot before he was flogged from the attack with the eye-watering figures of 11-0-104-2.
It was a day of two tempos for England – over-drive in the first session, in which 158 runs were racked up in 25.1 overs, including Harry Brook’s coruscating 54 from 41, his sixth half-century in eight Test innings – then cruise-control thereafter, as Ben Foakes brought up the rear of an innings that – at 237 for 6 – had at one stage threatened to skid out of control.
Foakes eventually fell for 51, caught behind off the persevering Blair Tickner, one ball after bringing up his fourth half-century with a pull through midwicket from his 79th ball. On his watch, England were able to extend their innings into the 74th over – and so ensure that New Zealand, as on the first day, would begin their innings with the floodlights kicking in, nominally the toughest time to bat in a pink-ball Test.
Tellingly Foakes arrived at the crease before his captain, Ben Stokes – a tacit acknowledgement that England could do with chilling their tempo, having at that stage shed five wickets in hurtling along to 225 in excess of a run a ball. Stokes himself eventually appeared at No. 8, after Root had fallen to a reverse-sweep on the stroke of tea, and though he took 12 deliveries to get off the mark, he wasn’t destined to stay quiet for long.
The net effect of England’s tempo was to mask the true nature of a pitch that is clearly on the benign side, but was offering some spin to Bracewell by the back end, and a two-paced nature to the quicks. After Broad’s dismissal, Root’s first boundary came from a cagey inside-edge off Tim Southee and while he found his feet, it was left to Pope to set the tempo in a withering display of aggression, including two mighty launches up and over fine leg for six off Wagner, to signal his team’s intent to climb back onto the offensive.
Two more sixes followed in Wagner’s next over – one apiece for Pope and Root this time, who had found his own timing with a clip for four off Southee. Both disappeared in the same direction, high down the leg side as Wagner’s left-arm, body-battering line was used against him to mighty effect.
Pope’s next trick was to take Wagner down the ground, retreating to leg to open up his options with a brace of tennis-smashed fours, and though he succumbed in the same over, gloving another pull down the leg side with his half-century beckoning, the arrival of Brook – whose first-innings 89 from 81 had been within touching distance of his fourth hundred in as many Tests – was not exactly a sign that England were about to change tack.
Like Root before him, Brook took an over or two to find his feet. He might have fenced to Henry Nicholls in the gully when Kuggeleijn surprised him with a rare full-length delivery, and was inches away from holing out to square leg on the pull as well. But he too turned up the volume when Wagner came back into his sights, crushing two more fours and a huge six over cow corner to get fully into the swing of things.
Brook saved his most startling fireworks for the 11th and final over of Wagner’s spell, however, belting four, four, four, six in an 18-run over that set him on course for a 37-ball fifty. Wagner retreated with the most-expensive analysis from a bowler’s first 11 overs since ESPNcricinfo’s ball-by-ball records began – knocking Bryce McGain off top spot. But before Brook could go much further, Tickner caught him in two minds with the fuller length, and Daryl Mitchell clung on well at slip.
England’s response to that dismissal was to send out Foakes ahead of Stokes – a slight admission, perhaps, that their tempo was a touch too excitable for a team that wanted, according to Root’s morning comments to the broadcaster, to reassess at the dinner break. Sure enough, at the appointed hour, they had given themselves the right. The only slight concern was a knee twinge for Ollie Robinson, who batted on to make 39 before being second-last out, caught off the glove pulling at Kuggeleijn.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket