Tea England 143 (Henry 4-48, Santner 3-7, O’Rourke 3-33) path New Zealand 347 (Santner 76, Latham 63, Potts 4-90, Atkinson 3-66) by 204 runs
Higher was to return for New Zealand, as O’Rourke eliminated Harry Brook, the main run-scorer on both aspect, first ball. Brook was maybe a contact unfortunate as he defended down into the bottom, just for the ball to bounce up and flick off the leg bail – however the outcome was the primary golden duck of his profession, and the primary time that he had been dismissed by a New Zealand bowler for lower than fifty.
In O’Rourke’s following over, the mixture of bounce and motion again in did for Joe Root, as his late reduce flew straight to Will Younger at backward level. The third prong of New Zealand’s assault, who claimed 9 for 93 on debut at Seddon Park earlier within the yr, had taken out the ICC’s No. 1 and No. 2-ranked batters in brief order, leaving England 82 for five.
A sprightly restoration stand of 52 in 13 overs between Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes adopted, just for Santner to take away each inside his first two overs. Pope had counterpunched successfully for the third Check in a row, solely to prop ahead limply to Santner’s sixth supply and divert an edge to slide. Stokes then fell lbw when lacking a slog-sweep.
The procession continued, as Henry returned to the assault and induced a tame lob to mid-on from Gus Atkinson. Brydon Carse squeezed a return catch again to Santner and when Matt Potts was caught throwing the bat at Henry, England had misplaced their final 5 wickets in 5 overs for the addition of 9 runs.
Henry’s opening spell had ensured New Zealand loved the higher of the second morning. Henry continued his maintain over Zak Crawley, dismissing him for the fifth time in as many innings, earlier than bagging Ben Duckett in the identical over as England stuttered in reply to 347.
New Zealand’s last-wicket pair of Santner and O’Rourke had pissed off England by the primary hour of the session, including 32 runs to the rating earlier than Potts ended a cat-and-mouse contest with the primary ball after drinks.
In pleasant batting situations, England regarded to get caught in from the outset. Crawley managed to attain his first runs of the collection off Henry, flicking the primary ball of the innings by high quality leg after which edging low and large of the cordon for 4. He was extra authoritative towards the retiring Tim Southee, crunching him for 4 fours in his opening over from Seddon Park’s briefly named Southee Finish.
However from the third ball Henry had bowled to him, Crawley may solely handle a forefront that was scooped up one-handed within the bowler’s follow-through. Crawley hung round for the third umpire to test however Rod Tucker confirmed the dismissal, bringing his document to 5 runs and 5 outs from 22 balls confronted off Henry within the collection.
4 balls later, Henry despatched again Duckett, too, the ball seaming in to hit the again leg in entrance of center stump. That left England 33 for two from 5 overs, earlier than Root settled rapidly with three early boundaries to assist convey up 50 in a vigorous mini-session that was the antithesis of what had gone earlier than.
For the primary half of the morning, with England spreading the sphere for Santner and focusing solely on getting out O’Rourke, the last-wicket pair ticked alongside in untroubled style. Santner discovered the boundary 3 times however in any other case dealt largely in singles, usually off the fourth ball of the over, whereas O’Rourke blocked steadfastly on the different finish.
The No. 11 initially performed out a maiden from Atkinson and continued to point out good defensive approach. His first run got here by way of an inside edge to high quality leg, and the identical shot later introduced him his first boundary in 19 worldwide innings.
O’Rourke was given out caught behind within the seventh over of the day, just for Ahsan Raza to must overturn his choice when know-how proved the ball had flicked the trouser leg.
It appeared as if the holding sample may proceed indefinitely, with Santner creeping on to his second-highest Check rating, after the hundred he made towards England in 2019. However instantly following the break, Potts discovered some inwards motion on the correct line to defeat Santner’s drive and peg again off stump, ending the stand at 44 and giving Potts his fourth wicket of the innings.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
