England v New Zealand Test Series 2026

[sussexpob]

Blundell was nearly back to the dressing room when the umpire reviewed that catch. Rew has'nt taken it clean, its grounded...

[sussexpob]

Just starting to sense a weariness creeping into Tongue and Baker, as the boundary balls are coming fairly regularly.

This is why you don't pick a guy like Archer with no 4-5 day prep. He's contributed 10 out the 57 overs bowled, and the rest are having to pick up the slack and starting to show it.

[Arthur Crabtree]

All the starts NZ have made suggest they've not got the most of the pitch.

I'd rather England had Rehan bowling Brook's overs, and manage without Cox at 7.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Presume there'll be some extra time for few minutes lost this morning, but currently 30 overs to bowl in the 30m until the scheduled close of play.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Blimey, Phillips is going like the clappers.

[sussexpob]

England back to just slamming in bouncers. The last one from Archer was so wild, it went to Root at second slip

[sussexpob]

Presume there'll be some extra time for few minutes lost this morning, but currently 30 overs to bowl in the 30m until the scheduled close of play.

The ICC really need to do something about this. Time to get radical... every 5 overs lost in the day based on an average when play is lost, with DRS decision time taken away, results in a wicket been taken away from the next innings. And if its the fourth innings, you add the wicket average for the game on the target.

[sussexpob]

Archer carries on with the barrage, Phillips has the light in his eyes and can't seemingly see the ball well. Calls for sunglasses, and then the next ball he cops a bouncer he doesn't see.... is this entirely safe?

Archer finally gets his man, but no... he's overstepped.

[sussexpob]

Wondering what the umpire is up to during that over..... I counted 5 bouncers from the 7 balls. Surely he needs to come and give him a warning for constant short stuff??

[sussexpob]

Bethell comes on, bowls an absolute pie, gets smacked....Blundell fancies it, and then tries to smash him again into the stratosphere, but only finds Midwicket.....

He will be livid with himself with that. Bethell came on, he decided he wanted to smack him around, and it's his downfall. Turns what was a great counter-attack into the opening of the tail, and a chance for England to finish this.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe he blagged the wicket, but a crucial breakthrough from Bethell.

[sussexpob]

Wondering what the umpire is up to during that over..... I counted 5 bouncers from the 7 balls. Surely he needs to come and give him a warning for constant short stuff??

It continues. Phillips has been hit three times as well. The rules are for 2 bouncers max, Archer is bowling virtually every ball at Phillips head.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Maybe Archer is trying to encourage the umpires to call close of play early.

[sussexpob]

Bethell gets Smith with a horrendously rank full toss. Struggle to find a worse spell than this will multiple wickets, he's bowled all over the shop but the Kiwis are feeling generous. Had 3 terrible long hops that they didn't dispatch either....

[sussexpob]

Hard to know at this stage with the history of the ground what this means. The ball did nip around a lot with the new ball, and Baker especially got a few to hoop even in the middle overs, with it continuing to nibble when England weren't smashing the middle of the strip. Also been some early indications of variation in bounce, nothing like last match, but especially around slightly short of a length a few balls have just kept a tad low and resulted in false shots/edges, and the odd ball has also took off. Baker got Mitchell with one that just seemed to stick in the surface a little. But nothing at the moment suggests if you bat well you can't score big. I think its England's day, NZ would have wanted closer to 400 to put pressure on, 300-375 might feel undervalued.

But it might be decent also. It depends if this pitch flattens out tomorrow as it has a tendency to in recent times. England will hope so....