Through the combination of a series already settled, various adornments for the retiring Tim Southee and fancy dress on the grass banks, this final Test could easily have taken on an end-of-term feel. Fast and loose cricket often bubbles up when players are tired and the finish line is in sight.
But the opening day of the tour’s finale was uncompromising stuff from both teams and no less of a spectacle for it. There was New Zealand batting determinedly, perhaps driven by atonement for the 2-0 scoreline as much as signing off Southee with a win, while England’s eamers hammered away with little sign of their edge having been dulled by a recent golfing trip to Lake Taupo.
By stumps, it was the tourists who had forced things their way once more. They had stayed calm in the face of a wicketless morning and the 105 runs shared by the openers, Tom Latham and Will Young, bursting through New Zealand’s lineup as the day wore on. Had Mitch Santner not clubbed an unbeaten 50 during a helter-skelter final session of 143 runs and six wickets, signing things off with a straight hit over the rope, his side’s 315 for nine from, ahem, 82 overs would have been far worse.
Granted, the hosts had been inserted by Ben Stokes, his mind made up by some early cloud cover that soon made way for blazing sunshine. But few captains do so at this boutique ground expecting a rush of wickets to follow. Instead, it was perspiration that delivered the breakthroughs, not to mention another clinical display of out-cricket that was summed up by a late boundary-rope catch from Harry Brook.
It may be that the best thing England did – other than 18 holes at Kinloch – was to freshen up their attack by swapping in Matthew Potts for Chris Woakes. Not that Woakes had done much wrong. But it let loose a seamer who had been straining at the leash. Potts, very much built like a bulldog from the backside up, produced 21 overs of relentless grunt for figures of three for 75.
Among these came a pivotal moment in the day and the continuation of a personal stranglehold. Kane Williamson utterly loves Seddon Park, coming into the game with a Test average of 92.4 from 11 outings. Having deftly chiselled his way to 44, steering the hosts to a seemingly promising 185 for three at the start of the evening session, there was an ominous sense of another feast brewing.
But New Zealand’s master is less fond of Potts, who through that nagging line from beyond the perpendicular had his number three times in four innings back in 2022. That statistic now reads four in five – 11 runs for four dismissals from 50 balls, to be precise – after a pretty galling demise when Williamson’s L’Occitane-soft hands deflected the ball back on to the stumps.
There was an attempt to kick the ball away that met fresh air and, uncharacteristically for Williamson, a head thrown back in disgust. The self-flagellation is unlikely to have subsided much thereafter as, sitting in the pavilion, he watched New Zealand lose a further five wickets. Still, at least there was some home cheer among this, be it Southee belting three sixes or Santner pushing back in the maelstrom.
This is England’s 17th Test match of the year and their determination not to relent was pretty evident. For one, Stokes thundered in for 23 overs, the captain’s heaviest workload for two years and thus his most since knee surgery 12 months ago. Then there was the sight of Brydon Carse sending a few words the way of Potts after an error in the deep and later refusing a sub fielder despite being struck down with cramp.
Carse was pushing through the pain barrier all day with his feet already in tatters from his efforts in Christchurch and Wellington. Shortly after sending daggers Potts’s way he was rewarded for it, Rachin Ravindra driving uppishly to slip on 18 and Ben Duckett, who had earlier grassed two half-chances there, holding on.
This was the first of two for the unyielding Carse, and the third of the afternoon for his side. Latham, with 63, and Young (42) had dominated the early exchanges, the latter making a point about his omission post-India with 10 sweetly struck fours. But when he fell to a sharp delivery from Gus Atkinson and Latham tickled Potts down leg to the once-again tidy Ollie Pope behind the stumps the tide began its shift towards England.
If Williamson’s dismissal after tea was a case of a lock being picked, then what followed was like a Swat team piling through. Stokes held Daryl itchell with a tumble at cover, before Zak Crawley picked off Glenn Phillips above his head. Both were surpassed, Jacob Bethell going full goalkeeper at cover to remove Tom Blundell for 21 and then Brook’s stunner to pouch Matt Henry. It was the kind that combines awareness and dexterity on the rope; utterly spectacular, even if de rigueur in the Twenty20 era.
The catch that arguably had the most riding on it was off Southee, who had walked through a guard of honour and set about his attempt to turn 95 sixes into three figures before leaving the stage. The 36-year-old will go into his second innings needing two more, having sent the latest bumper crowd doolally by adding three more to the collection, only for an attempted fourth to fly skywards off Atkinson.
Feet no doubt barking, and soon to be found writhing with cramp, Carse held on to a swirler that practically came down with snow on it. This was also a 51st wicket in the year for Atkinson who, like England on day one, has just kept coming.
