On their way stands the New Zealand team that, after finishing Joe Root’s masterful 176 and closing their hosts for 539 first, will start the day at 227 for seven. Daryl Mitchell, one of the first 190, is undefeated at 32 at one end, but the queue has begun. Their 238 lead still needs further improvement. It would be advisable to arrive early if the last session of the fourth day is something that needs to go. At this stage, everything was showing a draw, as New Zealand continued after the tea with 114 for two and a lead of 128. But the loss of five wickets before the logs, came from a glittering display by the hosts and two wickets for him. Matt Potts, changed the tone of this fight once again. It started almost immediately, also, Henry Nicholls loosely slapped Potts on Alex Lees in the back in the third to stir up the slightly diluted crowd of the fourth day. However, there was no doubt about the real catalyst, with Will Young’s catastrophic exhaustion for 56 shortly after the guy injecting confidence into a team. Jimmy Anderson celebrates getting Tom Latham’s wicket – his 650th Wicket in the Tests. Photo: Matt West / Shutterstock As happened during the hat-trick of the team that changed England’s game at Lord’s, Ollie Pope was the player in question. Finding a confusion between Young and newcomer Mitchell from the square foot, he took a moment, shot the ball at the bowler’s end and Stokes somehow managed to break the stumps behind his back as he fell forward. It meant the resumption of the alliance that has plagued England the most, Tom Blundell, another centurion in the early innings, joining Mitchell in the middle for a 45-pound stop that seemed to put out the flames. But when the New Zealand goalkeeper stumbled upon a well-crafted plan, Stuart Brod teased a catch in the corner to Stokes, his team was 176 for five and swayed once more. He was followed by Michael Bracewell, who briefly took the attack in England, smashing four four and one six into a 17-ball 25. However, the ambition won the debut, and after beating the Potts to the middle, another Mitchell mix. – saw Tim Southee running for a duck, tourists are probably limping to the end. The most successful chase on this soil was 284 when England struck against New Zealand in 2004. If Mitchell does not show any serious resistance, he may pursue a similar goal. Stokes will be happy with the delayed ascent to an area that had yielded 1,092 runs in the first two innings. That said, Jimmy Anderson gave his boss the perfect start during an explosion 40 minutes before lunch, when Tom Latham left a ball that bent around the mouth and landed on the middle stump. It was a pretty old miscalculation of the corkscrew, not that Anderson, who was celebrating his 650th wicket test, took care of it for a while. Broad combined this discovery with a powerful spell from the Pavilion End, but resistance soon formed, with Young and Devon Conway doing 100 runs for the second wicket on both sides of space. In particular, Conway liked Jack Leach one day when the eyes usually turned to the thread, sweeping backwards and reaching 52 with a worrying ease. With Leach battling for control, it came as a surprise when Conway donated his case in the middle of the afternoon. This time the left-hander attempted an orthodox scan by Leach just to throw the top edge into the deep square backwards. Jonny Bairstow did a good run to lift his colleague’s mood, while Ben Foakes, fresh from his 56-pounding bat, was a constant source of encouragement behind the stumps. Foakes had every reason to feel more crushed, he needed just 20 balls to turn an overnight 24 into half a century after England started again at 473 for five, 80 still behind, first thing. The right-hand man made some beautiful covers with covers, while Ruth’s mood – if not apparent from the wide smile and the 163 runs next to his name – was summed up by an outrageous upside-down scoop from the besieged Southee who flew over the third man. . The Spin: sign up and receive our weekly email cricket. His eyes widened and his jaws dropped into the crowd as minds tried to figure out such a classic touch player that channeled the inside of his Rishabh pants into a test match. But just as thoughts turned to further turmoil and a lead in the first innings, Root’s loss to a slower ball than Trent Boult caused him to lose his last five wickets for 23 straight. In this hasty finish, Boult finished 5 for 106 out of 33.3 over – as opposed to Southee for 154 out of 32 – when he fired the Potts stumps. The young man from Durham suffered from guilt from a confusion with Foakes who saw the senior man running outside, but after the night session, as his wickets support helped change the current, those feelings had long since melted away.
