Tickets – New Zealand 348 (Williamson 93, Phillips 58*, Carse 4-64, Bashir 4-69) vs. England
New Zealand were greeted by cloudy skies and a gentle breeze as they resumed their overnight game of 319 for 8, conditions that proved much more conducive to swinging than had been the case on a hot and windy first day.
Tim Southee took this as a sign to get to work, as he pulled Chris Woakes off his length for a first boundary, but was then undone by Carse’s first ball of the morning. He pulled from outside to outside and picked out Gus Atkinson in a deep square.
Will O’Rourke, however, proved a brave number 11, helped by Carse’s failure to attack his stumps as he repeatedly left the ball out, and Phillips briefly capitalized to convert his 41st not out of the night. tomorrow at 58 not eliminated.
He had a scare in the 42nd over when Carse, generating a good flow of steam, hit him hard on the grid across the top edge of the joint, and then Joe Root dropped him on the same spot at slip, a difficult diving opportunity to your right. But Carse finally got his line to O’Rourke to knock off his off-stump with a swinging yorker.
