England 222 for 6 (Gay 53, Henry 2-57) trail New Zealand 391 (Phillips 100, Blundell 51, Bethell 3-26) by 169 runs
After an evenly contested first day, the momentum shifted towards the touring side during an eventful morning session that saw Phillips raise a memorable hundred – in the process becoming the third New Zealander, after Brendon McCullum and Martin Guptill, to score centuries in all three international formats.
McCullum, now watching on from the England dressing room, will have been left with plenty to ponder after an erratic performance from his side. Their tactics and execution with the ball were initially found wanting and, although Gay showed impressive temperament once again, none of the top order could impose themselves in conditions that largely remained good for batting.
England’s openers had begun the reply by negotiating a three-over mini-session before lunch, Gay getting off the mark with a first-ball four for the second Test in a row. But there was a warning sign in their running when Ben Duckett called for a quick single into the off side and Nathan Smith narrowly missed with a shy at the striker’s end.
Duckett emerged from the break in typically punchy mood, rattling off boundaries on the way to 36 off 25 balls. Smith, however, did not need a second invitation when Gay this time tried to drop and run and Duckett was left a couple of yards short.
England had raced to 58 for 1 after 10 overs but New Zealand tightened up and were rewarded with the wicket of Jacob Bethell, who was dotted up for nine consecutive deliveries by Smith from the Vauxhall End before being drawn into pushing at the tenth and edging behind, Tom Blundell holding on as he tumbled across first slip.
Root, batting with the responsibility of captaincy for the first time since 2022, got off the mark first ball when squeezing Smith down to deep third and he was typically busy as the third-wicket pair brought up a fifty stand in the over before tea. Gay went into the break on 48 not out, but his wait was prolonged by a half-hour rain delay five balls after the evening session had begun.
He eventually raised his half-century with a confident thwack over midwicket off O’Rourke but once again couldn’t go on. Two balls later, O’Rourke, having switched to round the wicket, found the shoulder of the bat with another short delivery as Gay lost sight of the ball – the edge confirmed by DRS, despite Blundell seemingly indicating to his captain, Tom Latham, that a review wasn’t worth pursuing.
As with New Zealand’s top order on Wednesday, the England batters continued a trend of getting in and then getting out. Root had looked in excellent touch, straight driving Smith and taking O’Rourke for three boundaries in an over – cut, pulled and dabbed wide of the cordon – but was pinned on the knee roll shy of fifty as Henry nibbled one back into him with the keeper up the stumps.
Brook, whose third scoring shot was an outrageous slap for six over backward point off a 90mph/145kph O’Rourke delivery, fell in similar fashion as England slipped from 143 for 2 to 177 for 5 and in need of a partnership from the two newest recruits to the middle-order engine room. Rew had a life on 23 when Rachin Ravindra put down a top edge at fine leg, but O’Rourke got his man with another well-directed bumper two overs later to further tilt the scales in New Zealand’s direction.
The second morning had belonged to Phillips as New Zealand, aided by a desultory effort in the field from England, fought their way up towards 400 – a significant recovery having been 107 for 4 and 188 for 5 on day one, and a position from which to dictate terms.
They had resumed seven down, with Phillips 49 not out and key to designs on 350-plus. New Zealand ended up adding exactly 100 to the total in the space of 19.2 overs, chiefly through the efforts of Phillips and Jamieson, who extended their partnership to 87 – helped by an awful drop by Duckett.
Having set out their stall for a bouncer ploy, Sonny Baker’s first ball cleared the leaping Rew for four byes; his second was top-edged over the keeper to bring up Phillips’ fifty. Three overs with the old ball leaked 27 runs – and things did not improve greatly from there. Jamieson was twice hit on the helmet and should have been dismissed by Baker when he picked out deep midwicket only for Duckett to juggle the ball unsuccessfully, perhaps hindered by the glare of the sun (although his sunglasses were perched atop his cap).
Phillips kept the scoreboard moving with a series of percussive blows, while Jamieson responded to being roughed up by producing his highest Test score since 2020 – a sumptuous cover drive off Josh Tongue the pick of his seven boundaries. That Root turned to Bethell’s left-arm spin after five overs with the second new ball was indicative of how badly things were going for England.
Bethell did break the stand, hitting Jamieson’s leg stump as he attempted another heave across the line having scored 41 off 48 balls. Phillips by that stage was on 83, and Henry kept him company for the further 17 runs he needed – although he too benefited from an England error when a thin edge behind off Matt Fisher did not even elicit an appeal.
Phillips moved into the 90s when another bouncer clipped the top of his helmet and cleared Rew – runs credited to the batter, rather than leg byes – and then to within a hit of his hundred with a crunching drive off Bethell. With Archer finally called into the attack after 90 minutes of grazing in the outfield, Phillips was intent on not being tied down. He missed out against a short, wide loosener but punched his next ball for two through the covers before calmly tapping a single to reach three-figures.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
