New Zealand take control against England in second test

Much like the fourth evening in Mount Maunganui it was a case of New Zealand’s bowlers having been energised by their own batsmen, with Tim Southee and Matt Henry the men to inflict the late incisions. The mindset is different here and I have a lot of respect for how Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner have gone about their business,” said Broad, who went wicketless during the first Test. It’s not a three-slips-and-a gully place to bowl.” If Dom Sibley succeeds at Test level he will have done so from a particularly chastening start, the opener’s third innings this series once again lacking any of the permanence demonstrated during a summer repelling county attacks. Indeed there was a four-hour spell when you wondered if they truly believed they could take a wicket, let alone the 20 required to level the series, as the pair put on 124 in 53.4 overs and turned touring brains into mush. Watling was reprising the unyielding approach from his double century at Bay Oval, and on the ground named after New Zealand’s longest-serving prime minster, Richard Seddon (clearly a stubborn type himself given his 4,791 days in office were only ended by his death in 1906). Mitchell, having replaced the injured Colin de Grandhomme, was meanwhile demonstrating the depth in New Zealand’s cricket at present from the other end, as well as an ability to play the pull shot, something England decided to keep checking. This pair of Hamilton locals had come together from 191 for five in the morning when Sam Curran followed Broad’s removal of Latham with his sixth ball – bowled leaving a straight one on 105 – by teasing Henry Nicholls into a top-edged pull shot. An early chance came off the edge of Watling’s bat on one - Ollie Pope, the emergency keeper, perhaps stood too deep to Curran - butother than a wasted second review against the same man on seven, a who-blinks-first passage of play followed, kickstarted by some immaculately dry bowling from Chris Woakes. Mitchell holed out to fine leg when finally top-edging a hook off Broad – Archerholding the catch after finding himself the target of some good-natured chanting – with Woakes then bouncing out Tim Southee.