Amazing day for England, 383 runs for the loss of just 4 wickets, and 2 excellent big hundreds. I think Tom’s right, they fancy their chances here, if they can get a reasonable lead tomorrow.
Southee to Root, who you would expect would still be getting his eye in for the day. Forward defensive? A clip to square leg? Nah, a reverse scoop to the third man boundary for 6. Just unbelievable.
Decent enough day. Would have preferred to only been three down, but can't really complain. Still a lot of work to do tomorrow though. Not least trying to get through to the new ball without losing a wicket.
Brad mopping up their tail cheaply might be crucial and I suspect that our own lower order will have a big part to play tomorrow.
Foakes really is different class behind the stumps. Bizarre it has taken this long to get him back there.
He's always been a great keeper. Now his batting has improved he needs to nail his place behind the stumps. Easily our best keeper but we do need runs from him as well.
Agreed, which is why it would have made some sense to keep Buttler for as long as we did if he was scoring runs, but he hadnt been consistent at test level for a long time.
Full credit to Trent Bridge and the ECB for making it free entry today. It's going to be a hell of a finish and a full ground to see it.
I still make the draw the slight favourite - if England lose early wickets they can just shut up shop. I'd say draw is 50% chance, England win 30%, NZ win 20%.
