A sustained seam attack by Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse following a belligerent batting effort saw England on the verge of wrapping up the first Test at stumps on day three in Christchurch on Saturday. Led by a massive 171 from Harry Brook, England scored 499 in their first innings after they were 71 for 4 at one stage as the visitors took complete control of the first Test in Christchurch.
Harry Brook was ably supported by Ben Stokes (80) and Ollie Pope (77) before cameos from Gus Atkinson (48 off 36) and Brydon Carse (33 off 24) gave the visitors a 151-run lead. Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse carried England’s momentum with the ball as they picked up three wickets apiece to leave New Zealand reeling at 155 for 6 at Stumps on Day 3.
Kane Williamson (61) reached the 9000-run mark in Tests with the bat – the first New Zealand player to do so – and was the only batter for the hosts to convert his start while the rest of the batting order fell cheaply. New Zealand currently lead by four runs.
Harry Brook , Ben Stokes ably supported from cameos from Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse gives England 151 runs lead over NZ
Brook and Stokes continued from where they left off overnight, the latter hitting a boundary in the first over to bring up the century stand between the two batters. The hosts remained sloppy in the field on Day 3 as well with Brook being dropped for the fifth time in his innings, this time on 147 at gully. New Zealand took the new ball immediately once it was due in overcast conditions but the English batters scored 36 runs in the next five overs, to go into the lead.
This period of play saw Brook bring up his 150 with a boundary off veteran Tim Southee after dancing down the track and slapping the ball over extra cover. He hit Southee for 23 runs across his two overs. This was sandwiched by Stokes reaching his milestone of 50 as well.
It continued a remarkable turnaround from England, who had been on the ropes at 71 for 4 early in their first innings, but scarcely took a backwards step after resuming on 319 for 5 in the morning session, a deficit of 29. Brook and Stokes both emerged with belligerence, determined that they would not be caught cold under the morning cloud cover, as had been the case in their stuttering start to the innings, with Brook becoming only the third England batter after Wally Hammond and Joe Root to pass 150 twice in New Zealand.
And yet, having survived four drops on the second day, Brook was gifted a fifth life on 147. Phillips – who had handed him his first reprieve on 18 before grabbing a screamer to dislodge Ollie Pope – made a mess of another relatively straightforward catch that bounced out of his grasp at gully.
The new ball was Brook’s cue to take his innings into overdrive, particularly against Tim Southee, whom he launched onto the pavilion roof with one especially contemptuous swipe. Just when it seemed there was no respite in prospect, Brook nibbled tamely outside off at Matt Henry, and snicked off to Blundell behind the stumps. He left the stage with an overseas Test average of 89.40, and exactly 500 runs at 100.00 in New Zealand alone.
Woakes would save his impact for the ball, as Southee found his edge for 1 with a trademark outswinger that Latham – the spiller of three chances on day two – scooped up low at second slip. But England have brought some rare batting depth to this Test, and Atkinson – a centurion against Sri Lanka in the summer – and Carse each came out swinging from the get-go.
Atkinson brought up England’s 400 with a swiveled pull for six over square leg off Henry, en route to 48 from 36 balls, but the shot of the day was Brydon Carse’s outrageous, wristy lap over deep fine leg for the second of his three sixes.
He was left unbeaten on 33 from 24 when Shoaib Bashir become Henry’s fourth of the innings, although he had been dropped off his sixth ball by Phillips in the over after lunch – the eighth lapse of New Zealand’s fielding effort, and the third by Phillips alone. For all the dominance that England had exerted by the close, it wasn’t hard to spot where the tide had turned.
Brook was finally caught behind as he tried to run one down to third-man, bringing an end to a wonderful innings and an enormous stand of 159 runs. Chris Woakes departed soon after as the hosts looked to have roared back into the contest with the lead only 33 runs at that stage.
But Stokes and Gus Atkinson (48) frustrated the hosts with another stand of 63 runs during which time England crossed the 400 mark. Atkinson, who took few balls to get set in, soon started playing his shots with two fours and two sixes off the short ball while Stokes creamed a couple of drives through cover for four.
Stokes fell for 80 holing out to long-on. Brydon Carse came out playing his shots immediately with a boundary to get off the mark but he had a reprieve when Glenn Phillips dropped a skier at point. Brydon Carse made the most of it with three sixes and two streaky boundaries in his 24-ball 33 before Shoaib Bashir was caught by Southee at mid-wicket as England took a 151-run lead.
Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse share 6 wickets amongst them to put England on the brink of victory.
England continued to dominate New Zealand as they dismissed Tom Latham cheaply on 2. The New Zealand skipper closed his bat face early and Brook held onto a low catch at second slip. Devon Conway was dismissed on a single digit score for the seventh time this year, as he miscued a pull to mid-on which was taken by Atkinson.
Williamson and Rachin Ravindra managed to take the hosts to Tea without further harm. The former riding on a sublime 93 in the first innings, played some lovely drives through cover and down the ground for fours. Soon after the Tea break, Ravindra couldn’t resist a pull shot and hit it straight to Jacob Bethell at deep mid-wicket.
Williamson, looked at ease on the pitch which was on the placid side, played some stunning drives to the fence while Daryl Mitchell punished the over-pitched balls by Atkinson and brought out a reverse sweep for four off Bashir. The two batters targeted Bashir, who conceded 32 runs in his first four overs while Williamson reached his 37th Test 50.
Duly emboldened by a lead of 151, Woakes carried that attacking mindset into the field, serving up a performance that evoked his series-turning displays in the 2023 Ashes. He had gone wicketless across 20 overs in the first innings, reiterating those doubts in the process, but this time found an extra degree of nip from a fractionally fuller length, to finish the day with figures of 3 for 39 in 13 overs – already his third-best figures in 41 overseas innings.
Woakes’ first breakthrough came with his ninth delivery of the innings. Tom Latham had been New Zealand’s most fluent performer on the opening day with a quickfire 47, but this time he played fractionally across the line to a wobble-seam delivery that straightened into his edge and looped to Brook at second slip for 1.
Brydon Carse, bursting with energy once more, then struck in his first over as Devon Conway scuffed a pull to mid-on, where Atkinson stooped to gather a brilliant reaction catch, inches from the turf.
Williamson and Rachin Ravindra confirmed that the pitch was still perfectly playable in reaching tea unscathed in a third-wicket stand of 39, with Williamson notching his 9,000th run in the process. But that serenity was shattered when Brydon Carse returned for the second over after the break, with no slips in situ and a clear intention to play on the batter’s ego. Ravindra duly went for broke first-ball, and Jacob Bethell backpedaled well at deep square leg to snap the trap shut.
At 64 for 3, New Zealand were in desperate need of a partnership, and in Williamson and Daryl Mitchell – their outstanding performer on the 2022 tour of England – they found two wise heads who drew the sting from the situation, and set about nudging their team back towards the lead. But Woakes’ second spell cracked that resolve wide open.
The signs that he’d found his rhythm were plain when Williamson, fresh from making his second fifty in a Test for the tenth occasion in his career, was forced into a brace of awkward fences past gully, and in his next over he produced the killer blow – a superb in ducker that started on a tight off-stump line and kept coming back into Williamson’s pads, leaving him blowing his cheeks in exasperation as he called for the futile review.
One ball later, Woakes was on a hat-trick – mobbed by his ecstatic team-mates in the process – as the out-of-form Tom Blundell was undone by the opposite delivery, one that nipped half a bat’s width away, and grazed the thinnest of edges through to the keeper. Glenn Phillips kept the hat-trick delivery out, and subsequently managed to erase the remaining deficit, but he couldn’t hold out to the close.
Brydon Carse went wide on the crease, hit the pitch hard once more to find nip back off the seam, and umpire Rod Tucker’s onfield lbw verdict was upheld on umpire’s call.
As the hosts continued to bite into England’s lead, Woakes came back to trap Williamson LBW on 61 with the star batter missing a straight delivery. Upon review, impact was umpire’s call as Williamson failed to convert his 50 into a century for the second time in the Test. Tom Blundell’s horrid form with the bat continued as he was dismissed first ball, increasing the pressure on him.
Blundell has scored only one fifty in his last 18 innings and averages merely 15.88 with the bat during this time. Phillips and Mitchell took the hosts into the lead but the visitors struck once again to dismiss the former LBW, off the bowling of Brydon Carse. Nathan Smith and Mitchell played out the last three overs but New Zealand have an uphill task in front of them on Day 4.
Road Ahead on Day 4 for Eng and NZ
For a man who answers – as modestly as one can – to the nickname “Wizard”, Chris Woakes’ overseas record has become such a millstone that, in December last year, the man himself all but conceded his days as a touring Test cricketer were over, when he was omitted from England’s trip to India.
But the retirements of Stuart Broad and James Anderson, and England’s insistence that their remodeled Test attack still needs a wise old head to lead it, have redefined his role within the squad. On the third day at Christchurch, he delivered the spell that justified that faith; three top-drawer wickets in New Zealand’s second innings, including the priceless scalp of a well-set Kane Williamson, that have put England within sight of victory in the first Test.
Woakes dovetailed superbly with Brydon Carse, the newest addition to that seam attack, who utilized his heavy ball and unstinting energy to bomb his way to three wickets of his own, including Rachin Ravindra to his first ball of the evening session, and Glenn Phillips in the day’s closing moments.
After two days of even toil, England had secured a day of outright dominance. It was set in motion by their belligerent batting in an overcast morning session, in which Harry Brook’s mighty 171 underpinned a total of 499 in 103 overs, and Ben Stokes made a hard-hitting 80, his highest score since the 2023 Ashes. Some free-wheeling hitting from an allrounder-stacked tail then put the seal on their innings, with Gus Atkinson and Brydon Carse clattering a total of 81 runs from 60 balls between them.
That is Stumps on Day 3, another day that England have thoroughly dominated. Brook and Stokes resumed batting in the morning and added substantial runs to their overnight scores. Even once they were dismissed, Atkinson and Brydon Carse chipped in with quick and blusterous cameos to take England to 499. That meant England claimed a substantial 151-run lead. New Zealand needed their batters to step up but that did not happen.
Latham was dismissed early and as England continued to bowl with great discipline, Conway and Ravindra fell quite quickly despite getting starts.
While Williamson and Mitchell promised to provide some much-needed stability, with Williamson even going on to get his second fifty of the game, Woakes struck twice in two balls removing both Williamson and Blundell to severely hurt New Zealand. Phillips was the last man dismissed with 15 minutes to go to stumps and that’s left New Zealand reeling at 155/6. They have 4 wickets in hand and just a 4-run lead meaning chances of victory or even a draw are looking extremely bleak.