Key events
54th over: England 252-5 (Brook 23, Stokes 1) Stokes, facing O’Rourke, gets off the mark with a nurdle off his ninth ball. All of his most celebrated innings have startted slowly … but so have all the damp squibs of the past year. Brook, in the groove now, sees a lifter and pulls it for four with that ring of authority – but then he wafts at a wide one. Still, this flurry of fours has avoided the follow-on.
53rd over: England 246-5 (Brook 18, Stokes 0) Will the real Harry Brook stand up? He does now, moving back and across to get up on his toes and clip Smith to deep square, then leaning the other way to glide to deep third. Eight off two balls, 11 off the over: this could be the start of a beautiful counter-attack.
52nd over: England 235-5 (Brook 9, Stokes 0) What would make this situation even worse? A run-out! And Brook again threatens to lay one on, calling Stokes for a tight single into the covers and leaving him at the mercy of Henry Nicholls, who takes pity with a half-hearted underarm.
51st over: England 234-5 (Brook 8, Stokes 0) England had just scored their first four of the day as Brook steered his 13th ball with nice soft hands between slip and gully. Then Nathan Smith, using that wobble seam again, found the edge of Jamie Smith’s tentative prod and Daryl Mitchell, at slip, did well to get his fingers under the ball.
So here is Ben Stokes, coming out a lot earlier than he would have liked, but getting a warm hand from a packed house. They’re not too bothered about breaking a curfew when a match is over.
WICKET!! J Smith c Mitchell b N Smith 1 (England 234-5)
Smith is smothered by Smith, and the collapse has come to pass.
50th over: England 229-4 (Brook 3, Smith 1) Brook, facing O’Rourke, plays a better shot, a square push with the right ring to it. But still the runs are coming in a trickle: after racing to 210 off 40 overs, as if bringing back the John Player League, England have crawled to 19-2 off the last ten. That’s Test cricket: out of nowhere, ebb and flow.
49th over: England 228-4 (Brook 2, Smith 1) Nathan Smith started with a wicket maiden, using the crease, swinging the ball and deploying wobble seam. After dismissing Root, he has Brook in his sights, with Blundell still standing up as he did for both these superstars at the Oval. Smith beats Brook outside off with the ball that doesn’t jag back in, and Brook may well be relieved to get down the other end with a dab to third man.
48th over: England 226-4 (Brook 1, Smith 1) In a shock development, we have a scoring shot! Jamie Smith, facing O’Rourke, gets a thick inside edge on his first delivery and takes a single to square leg. Harry Brook wants two, which might have turned a drama into a crisis. O’Rourke then produces a sharp yorker which Brook does well to keep out with a late jab, and a little calm descends as Brook gets off the mark with a push into the covers.
What a start for New Zealand – like England yesterday, but even better.
WICKET!! Bethell c Latham b O’Rourke 74 (England 224-4)
One brings two! And just like that, both the overnight batters are gone. It was almost the same ball O’Rourke beat Bethell with in the first over, but closer to him, drawing the edge and a crisp low catch from Latham at second slip.
47th over: England 224-3 (Bethell 74, Brook 0) So here is Harry Brook, who has a bit to prove. Can he grab the game by the scruff of the neck, or will he make another flashy 30? He starts soberly, dot dot dot dot.
WICKET!! Root LBW b Smith 21 (England 224-3)
The big one! And it’s the Oval all over again – keeper standing up, Root pinned back, ball jagging in… The only difference is that it’s Nathan Smith rather than Matt Henry. Root calls for a review, but HawkEye says umpire’s call and he has to go.
46th over: England 224-2 (Bethell 74, Root 21) Will O’Rourke bowls the first over and struggles to locate Joe Root’s off stump. The first run of the day is a collector’s item: a bye caused by a fumble by Tom Blundell. It turns out that O’Rourke was just finding the right line to the left-hander. He instantly beats Jacob Bethell outside off with a ball that’s angled across him.
The New Zealanders are making their way out to the middle. “It’s blessedly cooler at Trent Bridge today,” says Mike Atherton. “About 29 degrees rather than 36 as it was yesterday.” Is anyone old enough to remember the days when rain stopped play?
The second email comes from next door to Trent Bridge. “Over in West Bridgford Park, there’s a big local event – Proms in the Park – happening all afternoon on Saturday,” says Richard Coffey-Glover. “I run a big community soul band called the Lady Bay Soul Collective (Lady Bay is the area across the Radcliffe Road), and we’re playing 4:30-5:30pm – you might even hear us. We’re a community band which started just under two years ago when I asked if anyone in the area wanted to meet up and play some jazz, and now we’re playing to thousands of people – playing music together brings out the absolute best in people!” It sure does … even more than sport, in my experience.
“We’re part of a larger Lady Bay Music organisation that exists to get as many people playing music together as we can. Take your pick of the songs we’re playing which suit the state of play in the cricket at that time: James Brown’s I Feel Good, Spooky by Dusty Springfield, or even Pick up The Pieces?”
The first email of the day comes from John Starbuck. “Things may be falling apart, as you say,” he writes, “but the lines ‘The centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world’ could be reserved for the Lord’s staff, if their next two Tests this summer are played on such a dreadful pitch as the first one.”
Personally, I love a low-scoring Test, when a cool-headed 50, like Emilio Gay’s, can be a matchwinner. So much better than sitting through a partnership of 300. But while we’re reflecting on pitches of the recent past, wasn’t the one at the Oval excellent? It had enough runs in it to be widely described as flat, yet there was always something in it for the bowler, whether that was Jofra Archer (who could have had a five-for on the first morning), Matt Henry or Jacob Bethell.
Preamble
Morning everyone and welcome to the third act of a riveting drama. England won the first Test, New Zealand won the second. New Zealand won the first day of this Test, England won the second. Who’s going to win the third? Who knows!
If the game is to have a winner, according to CricViz, it’s now twice as likely to be England (who apparently have a 45pc chance) as New Zealand (20pc). Are they sure about that?
Well as Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell batted yesterday, England are still just a collapse away from a first-innings deficit of 100. And collapses are their special subject. Plus, they have to bat last on a surface that is as dry as Mark Butcher’s sense of humour.
On the other hand, England are close to full strength, with Ben Stokes back to bowling with superhuman tenacity, while New Zealand are nearly as depleted as their hosts were at the Oval. The Kiwis’ change bowlers from the last Test are now taking the new ball, one of their stand-ins has had to stand down with possible concussion (get well soon, Blair Tickner), their best batter from the first two Tests is missing, their only spinner has taken a pummelling, and they didn’t even get to the Rex Rooms to celebrate their victory. In this slow old sport of ours, things fall apart very fast.
