England Cricket News - Comeback man Stuart Broad sailed a shifting spell of fast bowling under lights to leave New Zealand thin ice at the close of play on Day 3 at the Bay Oval. New Zealand started the final session with a target of 394 runs and finished in an uncertain position at 63 for 5
New Zealand's plan to calculate on Tom Blundell for the alternate time in the Test was snappily baffled by another Broad peach that comfortably sailed through the club-pad gap to hit the wholes. By this point, New Zealand was 28 for 5 and gaping down the barrel. Daryl Mitchell and Michael Bracewell also faced the music and ever put a lid on wreckage for the last 10 overs of the day. England began the day as adventurously as they finished it and the overt theme of that first session was England batters- v- Neil Wagner. A sharp bouncer saw the reverse of Stuart Broad beforehand, but at a slow pace, the fast bowler's repeated short deliveries were dealt with, rather severely.
Ollie Pope took charge first, shuffling across and targeting the fine leg boundary to hook Wagner down, and got a couple of sixes in the process. Root too tried the same shot with analogous results indeed as New Zealand persisted with the ploy. Tim Southee gave Wagner a change of ends, which came with a bigger fine leg hedge, many redundant boundary riders as well as the need for the batters to hit into the breath. Pope, still, stayed a step ahead of his adversary, as he flat-maundered the shorter balls down the ground.
Wagner, who kept oohing runs, managed to have the last laugh against Pope, as the ultimate gloved and tried to pull to the keeper and fell to 49. Harry Brook nonchalantly took over and targeted a tiring Wagner to fight down to a 37-ball half-century.
Both Brook and Root fell after getting to fifties to give New Zealand expedients of belting up the innings beforehand in the alternate session, but that was met with strong lower-order resistance. Ben Foakes, who was promoted ahead of his captain went on to come to the third half-centurion on the innings while Stokes got a tidy 33 which included He surpassed Brendon McCullum's census of 107, the head trainer happily saluting for his captain's achievement.
Foakes followed the template and departed right after getting his fifty but Ollie Robinson's 48-ball 39 and Jack Leach fur out 40 balls for 12 runs pushed England ahead in the alternate session. Bracewell got his third gate to strike England's innings, but not before they set a target of 394, which, indeed with six sessions left in the Test, appears too steep for the hosts.
BRIEF SCOREBOARD:
NZ-306 & 63/5
Tom Latham-1
Devon Conway-77
Neil Wagner-27
Tom Blundell (wk) -138
Tim Southee (c) -3
England-325/9 & 374