NZ vs ENG 2024/25, New Zealand vs England 3rd Test, Day 2, Hamilton Match Report, December 14 – 18, 2024

Tea England 143 (Henry 4-48, Santner 3-7, O’Rourke 3-33) trail New Zealand 347 (Santner 76, Latham 63, Potts 4-90, Atkinson 3-66) by 204 runs

Better was to come for New Zealand, as O’Rourke removed Harry Brook, the leading run-scorer on either side, first ball. Brook was perhaps a touch unlucky as he defended down into the ground, only for the ball to bounce up and flick off the leg bail – but the result was the first golden duck of his career, and the first time that he had been dismissed by a New Zealand bowler for less than fifty.

In O’Rourke’s following over, the combination of bounce and movement back in did for Joe Root, as his late cut flew straight to Will Young at backward point. The third prong of New Zealand’s attack, who claimed 9 for 93 on debut at Seddon Park earlier in the year, had taken out the ICC’s No. 1 and No. 2-ranked batters in short order, leaving England 82 for 5.

A sprightly recovery stand of 52 in 13 overs between Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes followed, only for Santner to remove both within his first two overs. Pope had counterpunched effectively for the third Test in a row, only to prop forward limply to Santner’s sixth delivery and divert an edge to slip. Stokes then fell lbw when missing a slog-sweep.

The procession continued, as Henry returned to the attack and induced a tame lob to mid-on from Gus Atkinson. Brydon Carse squeezed a return catch back to Santner and when Matt Potts was caught throwing the bat at Henry, England had lost their last five wickets in five overs for the addition of nine runs.

Henry’s opening spell had ensured New Zealand enjoyed the better of the second morning. Henry continued his hold over Zak Crawley, dismissing him for the fifth time in as many innings, before bagging Ben Duckett in the same over as England stuttered in reply to 347.

New Zealand’s last-wicket pair of Santner and O’Rourke had frustrated England through the first hour of the session, adding 32 runs to the score before Potts ended a cat-and-mouse contest with the first ball after drinks.

In friendly batting conditions, England looked to get stuck in from the outset. Crawley managed to score his first runs of the series off Henry, flicking the first ball of the innings through fine leg and then edging low and wide of the cordon for four. He was more authoritative against the retiring Tim Southee, crunching him for four fours in his opening over from Seddon Park’s temporarily named Southee End.

But from the third ball Henry had bowled to him, Crawley could only manage a leading edge that was scooped up one-handed in the bowler’s follow-through. Crawley hung around for the third umpire to check but Rod Tucker confirmed the dismissal, bringing his record to five runs and five outs from 22 balls faced off Henry in the series.

Four balls later, Henry sent back Duckett, too, the ball seaming in to hit the back leg in front of middle stump. That left England 33 for 2 from five overs, before Root settled quickly with three early boundaries to help bring up 50 in a lively mini-session that was the antithesis of what had gone before.

For the first half of the morning, with England spreading the field for Santner and focusing only on getting out O’Rourke, the last-wicket pair ticked along in untroubled fashion. Santner found the boundary three times but otherwise dealt largely in singles, often off the fourth ball of the over, while O’Rourke blocked steadfastly at the other end.

The No. 11 initially played out a maiden from Atkinson and continued to show good defensive technique. His first run came via an inside edge to fine leg, and the same shot later brought him his first boundary in 19 international innings.

O’Rourke was given out caught behind in the seventh over of the day, only for Ahsan Raza to have to overturn his decision when technology proved the ball had flicked the trouser leg.

It seemed as if the holding pattern might continue indefinitely, with Santner creeping on to his second-highest Test score, after the hundred he made against England in 2019. But immediately following the break, Potts found some inwards movement on the right line to defeat Santner’s drive and peg back off stump, ending the stand at 44 and giving Potts his fourth wicket of the innings.