Tea New Zealand 195 for 4 (Mitchell 20*, Blundell 7*) vs England
It could have been worse for the tourists had Zak Crawley taken a catch diving from second slip across Joe Root at first to remove Nicholls on 17 before Root shelled a regulation slip chance which dipped slightly on him off Daryl Mitchell, who had just three runs to his name at the time.
As it was Mitchell and Tom Blundell, who shared a 195-run stand in the second innings of New Zealand’s five-wicket defeat at Lord’s, went to the interval with their latest partnership intact at 26.
Stokes accounted for Nicholls with a ball that nipped away off the seam, drawing a prod to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and ending a 77-run stand with Conway.
Conway had produced some eye-catching drives and pulls en route to his score which included seven fours before he was done by an excellent Anderson delivery which looked like shaping away before jagging back off the seam and finding a big inside edge through to Foakes.
Stuart Broad also managed to find some movement to trouble the bowlers post-lunch and could have had Nicholls with a fuller ball angled into the left-hander from around the wicket but Crawley – who had further to move than Root – was perhaps left to rue not leaving the chance to his former captain when he managed only to parry it away from them both.
Anderson thought he had Conway out for 41 when the batter picked out Matthew Potts at midwicket but a soft signal of not-out was upheld when third umpire Rod Tucker ruled that the ball had gone to ground.
Stokes allayed concerns over his ability to bowl, raised when he showed some discomfort in his side while training on Wednesday, bringing himself on in the 19th over. He opened with a loose delivery outside off stump which Young punished to the boundary through point and which turned out to be the first of two front-foot no-balls for the over.
Jack Leach followed Stokes into the attack, having recovered from the concussion he suffered while fielding on the opening day of the first Test at Lord’s, but it was Stokes who made the breakthrough in his second over.
Having conceded two more boundaries to Young on the drive, the second misfielded by Leach in the covers, Stokes bowled a tight off-stump line and got the ball to kick into the splice of Young’s bat with Crawley collecting a good catch low at second slip.
Potts took a sharp catch at midwicket to despatch Latham, who slapped a short ball straight to him at pace as soon as Anderson returned to the attack. All of a sudden, New Zealand had lost two wickets in as many balls, changing complexion of the morning.
After losing the toss, Latham – standing in as captain for Kane Williamson who tested positive for Covid-19 on the eve of the match – said he would have liked to bowl first on a green-tinged pitch which he said looked dry underneath.
Willamson’s absence, and that of Colin de Grandhomme who injured his foot while bowling in the first Test and was ruled out of the series, forced two team changes for New Zealand, who also left out left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel. They brought in Henry Nicholls, back from a calf injury followed by a bout of Covid-19, and added Matt Henry in a four-pronged seam attack, with Michael Bracewell, the left-handed batter who also provides an off-spin option, making his Test debut.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor at ESPNcricinfo
