Watch cricket video highlights of New Zealand tour of England 2024. 1st Test between New Zealand and England. Venue of the match will be Christchurch.
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Chris Woakes, who goes by the moniker “Wizard” as quietly as possible, has had such a poor overseas record that, when he was left out of England’s trip to India in December of last year, he essentially admitted his days as a touring Test cricketer were gone. However, his position in the team has changed as a result of Stuart Broad and James Anderson’s retirements and England’s belief that they still need an experienced player to guide their revamped Test assault.
His effort on the third day at Christchurch, which included three top-drawer wickets in New Zealand’s second innings, including the valuable scalp of a well-set Kane Williamson, validated that trust and placed England within striking distance of winning the first Test. Woakes did a fantastic job with the newest member of that seam attack, Brydon Carse, who used his heavy ball and unwavering intensity to blast his way to three wickets of his own, including Glenn Phillips in the last seconds of the day and Rachin Ravindra to his first delivery of the evening session.
England had earned a day of complete control after two days of even toil. Their aggressive batting in a cloudy morning session was the catalyst, with Ben Stokes scoring a hard-hitting 80, his highest since the 2023 Ashes, and Harry Brook’s commanding 171 supporting a total of 499 in 103 overs. Their innings was then sealed by some free-wheeling hitting from an all-rounder-stacked tail, with Gus Atkinson and Carse clattering 81 runs from 60 balls between them.
With a 151-run advantage, Woakes entered the field with an attacking mentality, delivering a performance that was reminiscent of his series-winning performances in the 2023 Ashes. He finished the day with statistics of 3 for 39 in 13 overs, which are already his third-best results in 41 foreign innings. In the first innings, he had gone wicketless in 20 overs, reinforcing those worries. However, this time, he found an extra degree of nip from a fractionally longer length. With his ninth delivery of the innings, Woakes made his first significant progress.
This time, Tom Latham played fractionally beyond the line to a wobble-seam delivery that straightened into his edge and looped to Brook at second slip for one. On the first day, Latham had been the most fluid player in New Zealand, scoring a quickfire 47. Devon Conway scuffed a pull to mid-on, where Atkinson bent to collect a stunning reflex catch, inches from the dirt, and Carse, full of enthusiasm again, struck in his first over.
Williamson and Rachin Ravindra reached tea uninjured after a third-wicket partnership of 39, with Williamson scoring his 9,000th run, confirming that the surface was still completely playable. When Carse returned for the second over following the interval, with no slips in position and a blatant attempt to stroke the batter’s ego, that calm was upended. Jacob Bethell backpedaled smartly at deep square leg to close the trap after Ravindra deservedly went for broke on the first ball.
New Zealand needed a partnership badly at 64 for 3, and they found two smart minds in Williamson and Daryl Mitchell, who had been their standout players on the 2022 tour of England, who took the sting out of the position and started pushing their side back in the lead. However, that determination was completely broken by Woakes’ second spell. In his subsequent over, he delivered the game-winning blow, a brilliant inducker that began on a tight off-stump line and kept coming back into Williamson’s pads.
Leaving him blowing his cheeks in frustration as he called for the pointless review. Williamson had just made his second fifty in a Test for the tenth time in his career when he was forced into a brace of awkward fences past Gully. The opposite delivery, which nipped half a bat’s breadth away and skimmed the faintest of edges through to the keeper, undid the out-of-form Tom Blundell, and one ball later, Woakes was on a hat-trick, surrounded by his joyful teammates.
Although he was unable to hold out to the end, Glenn Phillips managed to erase the remaining deficit after keeping the hat-trick delivery out. Umpire Rod Tucker’s onfield lbw decision was upheld when Carse moved wide on the crease and struck the pitch hard again to find nip back off the seam. After starting the morning session at 319 for 5, a 29-run deficit, England, who had been on the ropes at 71 for 4 early in their first innings, hardly made a move in the opposite direction.
Brook became just the third England batter after Wally Hammond and Joe Root to reach 150 twice in New Zealand, and Stokes and Brook both came out of the game with a swagger, determined not to be caught cold under the morning cloud cover, as had been the case in their stuttering start to the innings. However, Brook was given a fifth life on 147 after surviving four drops on the second day. At Gully, Phillips, who had given him his first reprieve on 18 before snatching a screamer to get Ollie Pope out of the way.
Made a mess of another very simple catch that bounced out of his fingers. Brook used the new ball as a chance to ramp up his innings, notably against Tim Southee, whom he slammed against the pavilion roof with a particularly snide swipe. Brook nibbled tamely outside at Matt Henry and snuck off to Blundell below the stumps just when it appeared that there would be no relief in sight. With an international Test average of 89.40 and precisely 500 runs at 100.00 in New Zealand alone, he walked off the stage.
Latham, who squandered three opportunities on day two, scooped up Southee’s signature outswinger low at second slip, giving Woakes the opportunity to reserve his impact for the ball. However, Atkinson, who scored a century against Sri Lanka in the summer, and Carse both came out firing right away, and England has added some uncommon batting depth to this Test. En way to 48 from 36 balls, Atkinson reached England’s 400th century with a swivelled pull for six over square leg off Henry.
However, Carse’s spectacular, wristy lap over deep fine leg for the second of his three sixes was the day’s best shot. Despite being dropped off his sixth ball by Phillips in the over after lunch, which was the seventh error in New Zealand’s fielding attempt and the third by Phillips alone, he was remained undefeated on 33 off 24 when Shoaib Bashir became Henry’s fourth of the innings. Even with all of England’s might at the end, it was easy to see where things had changed.
