England He faced some stubborn New Zealand resistance after practicing the sequel on the third day of the decisive second Test at Wellington.
Ben Stokes He sent Black Caps back to the bat after three rooks. Stuart Wide In the morning session, he saw them dismissed with 209 points, 226 behind.
But the trail went cold like kiwi openers Tom Latham and Devon Conway shared an uninterrupted stop of 49 in 128 at Basin Reserve.
It was the home team’s best stand in the series and the lack of any concrete chances showed that England will need to work hard to turn their advantage into victory.
There were a handful of edges dying in front of the slip cord and a few hits that briefly threatened to throw close catchers into play, but other than that it was a quiet existence for the high-end couple.
Stokes, who would never turn down a chance to put the opponent straight back because he preferred aggressive tactics, had never bowled before tea.
Broad previously had a four to 61 after knocking out the last three New Zealand batters.
house captain Tim Southee He started the day hard and often on the England offense, polishing his second-best Test score of 73. Fifty of those runs came in the morning’s game, Jack Leach with just 31 balls and hacked three sixes in another. From the Ollie Robinson tampon.
Broad’s introduction ended his fun, with a skier going to midwicket immediately making up for Leach’s fall on a ball’s thin foot.
With the door ajar, Broad took the chance to put together some regular figures, Tom Blundell nailed one right in the middle, and Matt Henry swung in a neck-high delivery. With the innings occupying a modest top spot of 53.2, Stokes was eager to activate England’s sequel, the first since August 2020.
James Anderson was in reserve and leading the new ball, but both Latham and Conway looked safe as they reached 40 at lunchtime without a loss. There was nothing more disturbing than a few nudges Conway made, one that briefly interested Ollie Pope in the leg groove and the other at the leg slip off Leach, nothing more troubling than a couple of Stokes nudges flying one yard wide.
The afternoon game was even more difficult, adding 88 to 30 unlucky overs. Anderson cast the best spell, he worked hard on the defenses but only managed to get a few notches hitting the grass frustratingly close to the waiting catchers.
Root was asked to do the occasional off-spin to complete the attack, Stokes is notable for his absence, and the team went face-to-face before both hitters brought their half-cents, Latham 124 ball and Conway three faster.
Robinson looked tired when he picked up a short ball on Latham, the seventh Kiwi to have previously taken 5,000 Test runs, and saw the ball hit the strings.
Despite being 98 ahead at the timeout, England had questions to answer as they left.