Stuart Broad believes New Zealand can ‘take a moment’ to play against England on day four of the series-deciding third Test after taking a 204-run lead after two innings.
England started the third day with hopes of getting through to bat and building a sizeable first-innings lead, but instead lurched from 223-2 to 354 overnight, leaving New Zealand 84 runs ahead.
Jofra Archer’s blistering spell saw hopes rekindled as openers Tom Latham (4) and Devon Conway (5) were dismissed, but unbeaten 26s from Rachin Ravindra (60no) and Daryl Mitchell allowed the Black Caps to consolidate their already impressive lead and end the day on 120-3.
The score puts England on the brink of back-to-back defeats and Broad believes it was a good fourth day for the tourists at Latham to seal the deal.
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After tormenting England all day, Tom Latham and Devon Conway were removed in the space of a few balls.
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Ben Sears dropped a sitter that befuddled bowler Will O’Rourke!
“New Zealand is in a pretty strong position,” Broad said. sky sports.
“If I were in the England dressing room I would be thinking, ‘Okay, maybe 10 balls on this surface will get us out, but we’ll have to score quickly to prevent those 10 balls from coming our way.’
“I think England should be around 300 or below 300, which is asking too much here.
“At that stage (51-3) it looked like England were coming back into the game at breakneck speed.
“Now New Zealand are leading by 204 runs and they are saying in the dressing room, ‘Hey guys, if we can get 160, 170 more runs for the last seven wickets, we can put this game to sleep’.”
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Jofra Archer took two wickets in the top of New Zealand’s second innings to reduce the visitors to 12-2.
But the former England seamer also highlighted the Test venue as a possible advantage for England, with Trent Bridge being the site of Ben Stokes’ stunning chase of 299 against the same opposition four years ago.
“Think of that famous chase. Nobody here at Headingley (358 against Australia in 2019) or Edgbaston (378 against India in 2022) has this much bounce differential, but England’s mentality is ‘we can score runs like this’.
“We know Trent Bridge is a popular ballpark known for its high ODI scores and fast outfielders.
“New Zealand bowled very well today. They didn’t bowl well yesterday afternoon, so we’ll just have to hope that their relatively inexperienced bowling line-up can come out and score some runs.”
“Ultimately, England still need seven New Zealand wickets. They’re still doing quite a bit with the ball and there’s no real sense in looking at what they can chase until they get those wickets.”
Woakes: Watch out for Stokes’ England in pursuit
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England captain Ben Stokes was bowled by a beauty from Zak Foulkes.
Former England player Chris Woakes told Sky Sports:
“England will absolutely want an early wicket.
“The New Zealand team will have a few scars from what happened in Jonny Bairstow’s big chase in 2022.
“I think it’s a bit of a different pitch. It’s been offered a bit more, especially in the last few days. I can’t see it being that easy to chase.”
“But always watch out for what a Ben Stokes-led England team can do in the fourth innings.
“(New Zealand) still want to capitalize and use that as a big lead to force England to chase a big score.
“Ideally from a New Zealand perspective we would need 400, but that seems unlikely.”
England vs New Zealand – Results and Fixtures
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Watch Day 4 of the third Test between England and New Zealand live on Sky Sports Cricket from 10.15am (first ball 11am) on Sunday. Stream cricket and more with NOW – no contract.
