Lunch England 280 and 82 for 1 (Duckett 39*, Bethell 34*) lead New Zealand 125 (Atkinson 4-31, Carse 4-46) by 237 runs
Six wicket had fallen in the first hour, taking the total to 21 in three-and-a-half sessions, but England’s second-wicket pairing buckled their swash to good effect. Boundaries flowed, particularly from the bat of Bethell, as they quickly cemented England’s position of control after the loss of Zak Crawley in the second over of the innings.
Crawley had struck Tim Southee’s first two balls through the covers, sounding the bugle on an expected England charge after they had secured a 155-run lead, but was then dismissed by Matt Henry’s second ball, clipped firmly but straight to midwicket. It took his brutal series record against Henry to 19 balls faced, zero runs scored, four times out.
Bethell struck Henry for a brace of boundaries to get going, then pulled Nathan Smith’s second delivery for six. Duckett did the same to Henry as England reached 50 in the ninth over – although the single that raised the mark went down as a dropped catch as Blundell couldn’t cling on to Duckett’s fine edge down the leg side.
Bethell then steered low through the cordon before heaving Smith into the crowd again, and Southee was greeted back into the attack with another brace of boundaries as England reached lunch in complete control.
New Zealand resumed their innings with Tom Blundell batting alongside nightwatcher Will O’Rourke. Blundell shaped up nicely for all of 12 balls, pulling Carse for the first boundary of the day – but was extracted by the 13th he had faced, Carse producing a beauty to hit the top of off. He had his fourth two balls later when O’Rourke propped forward hopefully and was tapped plumb in front of middle.
Smith briefly suggested that their might be a counterattack from the New Zealand lower order, timing Carse down the ground to bring up three figures before following up with a full-blooded mow over midwicket for six.
Glenn Phillips added three quickfire boundaries and Smith then drilled Atkinson through the covers as the stand reached 29 at more than a run a ball. But Atkinson found extra bounce on a tight line to defeat Smith, who underedged on to his stumps attempting to leave.
The end of the innings was swift, as Atkinson had Henry fending a chest-high bumper to gully and then bluffed Tim Southee by pushing the field back then going full and straight at the stumps. Southee reviewed with a forlorn glance, ball-tracking confirming it would have hit middle and leg – and Atkinson walked off as the first Englishman to take a Test hat-trick since Moeen Ali at The Oval in 2017.
