Hosts overcome eerily similar position to one from last summer’s Ashes on fiendish Lord’s pitch
England look set to banish memories of their Ashes blow-out in Perth as they traded blows with New Zealand and emerged well on top after a frantic second day of the first Test at Lord’s.
There was an eerily familiar theme as England suffered a drastic collapse on Friday after reaching the lunch break 99 runs ahead with just one wicket down.
That was the exact position they tossed away in Perth in November, a defeat which paved the way for a demoralising tour to Australia – and history was threatening to repeat itself as they lost four wickets for one run in 11 game-changing deliveries.
They veered from 2-126 on a fiendishly difficult pitch, debutant Emilio Gay falling for a hard-fought 57 before Harry Brook (nought), Joe Root (eight) and Ben Stokes (nought) followed in a whirlwind of activity.
In Perth they were beaten by stumps but this time they had Jamie Smith to thank for a plucky 39, lifting them to 226 all out and setting the tourists a tough target of 254 to win.
Gus Atkinson and Josh Tongue then left the Black Caps 3-36 at the close, to hand the home side a commanding position after a dizzying 17-wicket day.
It began with England turning New Zealand’s overnight score of 6-61 into 113 all out – enough to lead a low-scoring contest by 27.
Tongue set the tone for another bowler-friendly day by knocking over Glenn Phillips’ off-stump with his first ball of the morning then jagging one dramatically off the pitch to bowl Nathan Smith.
Some ill-judged short balls allowed the towering Kyle Jamieson to thrash 38 but the Kiwis still lasted less than 30 overs, Ollie Robinson bowling last man Matt Henry to secure a spot on the honours board with career-best figures of 5-39.
By lunch, England had carved a strong position for themselves at 1-72, perfectly recreating their position six months earlier in the Ashes opener.
Ben Duckett, dropped on 12 by the wasteful Rachin Ravindra, was the man to go for 33 but Gay showed admirable nerve to navigate a tough new-ball examination.
He would have been out for 24 in the first over of the afternoon had New Zealand reviewed an lbw shout and the error count ratcheted up when Devon Conway spilled Jacob Bethell on eight, his second drop and New Zealand’s fourth of the match.
Bethell, though, was soon bowled by a filthy shin-high grubber from Henry before he had a chance to cash in.
Gay eked out the highest score of a bowler-dominated match as well as the longest knock of 95 balls.
After he’d departed, nicking behind, mayhem followed as Brook overbalanced as O’Rourke had him lbw for a four-ball duck, Root was clipped in front of leg by the next ball from Nathan Smith and Stokes’ lean streak continued as he was clean bowled past his outside edge without scoring.
Smith and his Surrey teammate Atkinson battled to halt New Zealand, rebuilding either side of the tea break to tease out a 57-run stand – the highest of the match.
Nathan Smith got rid of both to finish with a superb 6-70 but England reasserted control with Atkinson picking off skipper Tom Latham and nightwatchman O’Rourke, while Tongue rapped the experienced Kane Williamson.
