Harry Brook scored his seventh century in just his 22nd Test match as England rode on New Zealand’s fielding benevolence to overcome an early wobble and close in on the hosts’ first innings total of 348. Harry Brook was a beneficiary of as many as three dropped catches as he marched on to finish unbeaten on 132, sharing big stands for the fifth and sixth wickets with Ollie Pope (77) and Ben Stokes (37*).
By crossing the 69-run mark during England’s first innings on Friday, Harry Brook completed 2000 runs in Test cricket, and by doing so, he equaled a 96-year-old record. Brook became the joint-fastest England batter to score 2000 runs in Test cricket. He achieved the feat in his 22nd Test. England, who continued to score at more than four runs to the over, ended the second day’s play in Christchurch at 319/5 with the second new ball still six overs away.
Brydon Carse’s career best 4 wicket haul bundles NZ for 348 runs in 1st innings
New Zealand began the day at 319/8, after England’s late flurry of wickets on Day 1. Brydon Carse (4/64) wrapped up the Black Caps innings early, dismissing the home side for 348.
The two teams were welcomed to the second day’s play by strikingly different conditions. The hot and breezy weather from the opening day was gone and instead it was cool and overcast, the kind of conditions Stokes might have envisaged while opting to bowl yesterday. Coincidentally or otherwise, this also translated into greater assistance for the bowlers and more mistakes from the batters – England’s false shot percentage after 15 overs hovered around 30 where the corresponding number for New Zealand was just 15.7.
But before they could attack these bowling-friendly conditions, New Zealand’s last two wickets crucially added 29 runs in 40 minutes of play during which time Glenn Phillips went from 41 to 58*. Eventually, Brydon Carse uprooted No.11 Will O’Rourke’s off-stump to finish with career-best figures of 4 for 64 and drew the curtains on New Zealand’s innings at 348.
The day’s dramas had been telegraphed during the end of New Zealand’s own innings. Phillips converted his overnight 41 to an unbeaten 58, but it was not an easy stay, as epitomized by his audible cry of “oh you weasel!” as Chris Woakes beat him with an outswinger. He also had a scare on 42 when Carse, generating a good head of steam, smacked him hard in the grille via a top-edge off the splice, and in a sign of things to come, was also dropped in the same over by Root at slip, a tough diving chance to his right.
But Carse had already done for Southee with his first ball of the day, and eventually plucked out O’Rourke’s off stump with an outswinging yorker, to close out the innings with career-best figures of 4 for 64 in his third Test. It was a reminder that England too have the bowlers to compete on this intriguing surface. If they have the catchers too, they will believe this game is back in their grasp.
Nathan Smith’s thunderous spell on debut keep England reeling at 71 for 4 at Lunch on Day 2
It quickly became apparent that hauling down that score or even being true to England’s aggressive approach with the bat was not going to be easy once Tim Southee began with a maiden in which he curled two sublime outswingers past Zak Crawley’s bat. The tall opener’s struggles in this country – average of 10.43 in 16 innings – was exacerbated when Matt Henry seamed one back in to trap him LBW.
And once New Zealand’s first innings had been wrapped up for 348, after the addition of 29 runs in 40 minutes, the ferocity of their bowling onslaught had echoes of their astonishing 46-all-out display against India in Bengaluru last month.
Zak Crawley was the first to go, lbw to Matt Henry for a 12-ball duck that left his average against New Zealand at a grim 10.43, but the most stunning blows were struck by the debutant Nathan Smith in the final over before lunch, as he extracted his fellow newbie Jacob Bethell for 10, then, critically, England’s kingpin, Joe Root, also for a duck.
Bethell’s maiden innings at No. 3 could scarcely have unfolded in tougher conditions. He was made to wait 13 deliveries before nudging his first run through the leg-side, and hadn’t added to his score in 13 more, until the introduction of Smith allowed him to free his arms with a brace of boundaries: one off the pads, the other through backward point.
Debutant Jacob Bethell went 13 balls for his first run and a further 13 for his next before managing a pair of boundaries. Fellow debutant Nathan Smith ended Bethell’s troubles in the final over before Lunch when he had the left-hander dismissed for 10 with a delivery that angled in from around the wicket and straightened ever so slightly to take the edge.
After an agonizing wait to check for a foot fault, the decision went in Smith’s favour, who served up a couple of follow-up no-balls before getting Joe Root to drag a length ball onto his stumps for his first duck in Test cricket since December 2022
Smith, however, got the last laugh at the start of his second over – and then some. With just minutes of the session remaining, he served up a perfect seaming delivery, which angled in at the left-hander from round the wicket, then held its line as it bit and climbed into the edge.
Smith had an agonizing wait while the third umpire checked for a no-ball, but with the euphoria still surging, he finished the session with an even more critical incision. Root faced down three deliveries, two of which were called as no-balls this time, but his fourth was on a wider line and nipped back off the surface, taking an under-edge into the stumps. It was an astonishing introduction for a bowler with a bustling energy and action redolent of Australia’s Andy Bichel, and as the teams left the field, New Zealand looked good for several more such moments.
England’s reply started shakily, with opener Zak Crawley falling early to Matt Henry, trapped plumb in front within the first four overs. Ben Duckett and debutant Jacob Bethell steadied the innings briefly before Nathan Smith, also on debut, caused chaos just before lunch. Bethell nicked one to Tom Blundell, handing Smith his first Test wicket. Two balls later, Joe Root, playing in his 150th Test, chopped one onto his stumps, giving Smith his second wicket in quick succession.
Ben Duckett at least resisted in his idiosyncratic fashion, bashing six fours in a 62-ball 46, but he didn’t so much ride his luck, as turn it into a bucking bronco. He survived the day’s first missed chance, to Latham at second slip on 23 off Henry, then got away with two further inside-edges and a spliced pull over deep third before the beanpole seamer Will O’Rourke induced a fatal top-edge to deep backward square.
Forty-five for three became 71 for 4 in the post-Lunch session as Duckett’s chancy innings came to an end four short of a half-century when his attempted pull shot off Will O’Rourke went only as far as the deep square leg fielder. New Zealand should have had their fifth wicket, and Smith his third, in the very next over as Brook edged a wide delivery to gully where the usually unflappable Glenn Phillips put down a straight forward catch.
Harry Brook 132* helps England claw back lost ground on Day 2
Harry Brook entered the fray and took control of the proceedings, finding support in Ollie Pope. The duo put on a commanding 151-run partnership, mixing regular strike rotation with aggressive stroke play to put England back in the contest.
Forty-five for three became 71 for 4 in the post-Lunch session as Duckett’s chancy innings came to an end four short of a half-century when his attempted pull shot off Will O’Rourke went only as far as the deep square leg fielder. New Zealand should have had their fifth wicket, and Smith his third, in the very next over as Brook edged a wide delivery to gully where the usually unflappable Glenn Phillips put down a straight forward catch.
That allowed Harry Brook and Ollie Pope to begin laying the foundations for a big partnership. They began in sprightly fashion, quickly clawing back all the lost ground. Both the right handers were particularly productive, guiding balls past gully and over the slip cordon for boundaries.
Harry Brook was reprieved once more when on 41 with Latham fluffing a straight forward chance at slip with Smith the unlucky bowler once again. New Zealand were made to pay for their benevolence as the pitch eased out through the latter half of the second session with both batters getting to their half-centuries and taking their side to 174/4 – exactly half way to the hosts’ first-innings total.
At 71 for 4, England were reeling, and their predicament could have been insurmountable had Harry Brook fallen to the first of his four lives in the very next over, a bad miss at gully by Glenn Phillips on 18 that looked all the more glaring when, some 30 overs later, he pulled off a one-handed screamer at backward point to end Pope’s doughty stay. Smith had been the luckless bowler, as was the case when Brook was on 41, as Latham spilled his second of the innings, another bad miss at first slip.
By then, however, the sun was beginning to creep through, and England’s unquenchable desire to be proactive was already clawing back some of the lost ground. Pope, at No. 6 for this Test – ostensibly because he is keeping wicket, but also as a consequence of his grim tour of Pakistan – was once again frenetic from the outset, as he took on O’Rourke’s height and bounce with a series of streaky slaps over the cordon, one of which he knew very little about.
But, with Harry Brook following suit with a startling flick for six over fine leg off Henry, England’s run-rate began to creep back towards the habitual 4-an-over pace with which they have subdued so many bowling attacks in the recent past. By tea, both men had marched through to their fifties against a now middle-aged ball – Harry Brook with a second six over fine leg, Pope with a nudge to leg from a brisk 59 balls – and as they kept up that intensity into the evening session, New Zealand’s errors continued to stack up.
Scoring continued to be rapid in the final session although New Zealand finally held on to a catch to end the 151-run stand for the fifth wicket. This effort, however, was on the other end of the fielding spectrum as Phillips dove full length to his right to pluck an uppish shot from Pope.
The favour, however, wasn’t returned for Phillips when he rolled his arm over as Devon Conway put down another chance at deep slog. Batting on 71 then, Harry Brook went on to complete a century off 122 balls with his ninth boundary – he also hit two sixes – and another that went past the point fielder.
Devon Conway spilled chance No.4 at deep midwicket, as Harry Brook wound into a slog-sweep on 70 off Phillips, and by then his century was pre-ordained. He duly moved deep into the 90s with an outrageous lap-scoop over the keeper’s head off Southee, whom he then cracked through deep point to bring up his century from 123 balls.
Earlier he had become the eighth fastest player, in terms of innings, to reach 2000 Test runs, and second only to Duckett in terms of balls faced: a brisk 2300. There was time yet for one last let-off; a clanger behind the stumps from Blundell down the leg-side, although seeing as the umpire also missed the edge and singled four byes, maybe there really was no way of dislodging him.
At 222/4, Ollie Pope’s entertaining 77-run knock came to an end courtesy of a stunning one-handed catch by Glenn Phillips at backward point. Ben Stokes (37*) then joined Harry Brook and carried the momentum forward, forming an unbeaten 97-run partnership.
Harry Brook’s seventh Test hundred, and his third of the year came just when England needed it the most after finding themselves in a position of worry at 45/3. The right-hand batter concluded the day on a superb 132*, guiding the visitors to within striking distance of New Zealand’s total.
New Zealand dropped two more catches, one off Harry Brook and another off Stokes, allowing another partnership to flourish. The English pair had added 97 runs in just 130 balls for the sixth wicket, bringing the deficit down to just 29 runs.
Day 3 Road Ahead for NZ and ENG
Dreadful day out in the field for New Zealand today and they’ll be kicking themselves. As many as 5 catches went down and instead of being well ahead in the game having reduced England to 71/4 quite early in the day, they find themselves staring at a potentially large first-innings deficit. Plenty of chances were created, particularly in the first session and in the first hour after lunch but very few were converted. Once the ball got older though, England started picking them off and scoring became very easy.
Nathan Smith bowled his heart out, he got the wickets of Bethell and Root early but got extremely unlucky thereafter as most of the catches were dropped off his bowling. With England in trouble, Harry Brook and Pope stepped up and stitched a crucial 151-run stand.
It took a stunning grab from Phillips to get rid of Pope for 77 but Harry Brook made the most of his luck and notched up his 7th Test century. Stokes too was dropped late in the day and that means England are quite comfortably placed. The stand is worth 97 and they’ll be looking at claiming a handy first-innings lead.
You have to make hay while the sun shines, as Harry Brook proved in two distinct interpretations of that hackneyed old adage. His seventh Test century – and sixth away from home – was a magnificent and crucial contribution to a day of wildly contrasting weather patterns, as England recovered from a torrid working-over under overcast morning skies to storm towards first-innings parity by the close, as the sun broke back through for the day’s final two sessions.
But rarely can New Zealand have clouded their own fortunes with a spate of fielding lapses to match those that they served up on this enthralling second day. Six clear-cut chances went begging in the course of England’s 319 for 5, including four for Harry Brook alone – and at almost rhythmical interviews too: on 18, 41, 70 and 106, as if designed to douse their bowlers’ morale any time they looked ready to turn back the tide.
The upshot is a match situation that now feels like England’s to blow. The sense after they’d prized out eight first-day wickets after choosing to bowl first was that this wicket would get better and better for batting, and so it seemed to prove.
Harry Brook himself built key stands of 151 for the fifth wicket with Ollie Pope, who responded to his wicketkeeping reshuffle with an excellent 77, and an unbeaten 97 with his captain, Ben Stokes, who was ominously placed on 37 from 76 at stumps. Stokes did, however, get a life of his own on 30 in the day’s closing overs, as Tom Latham spilled catch No.6, and his third of the day, this time at short cover.
But England had not bargained for the mayhem that greeted them while the clouds were in situ for the first three hours of play. The hot, windy weather that had greeted the first day’s play was replaced in the morning by cooler, overcast conditions with a gentle breeze that proved perfect for helping the ball talk, with the degree of swing on offer being almost double that which England had managed. The upshot was that New Zealand found themselves bowling in the conditions that England themselves had envisaged exploiting after winning the toss.