Watch cricket video highlights of New Zealand tour of England 2024. 3rd Test between New Zealand and England. Venue of the match will be Hamilton.
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After a third day that went from potentially tragic for the tourists to bizarrely humorous for everyone involved, Kane Williamson’s outstanding century gave New Zealand a huge lead over England. The word “tragedy” is frequently used incorrectly to characterize situations that are far from tragic, and it most likely exaggerates the hamstring injury that kept Ben Stokes out of play for the remainder of New Zealand’s dominant innings.
However, “comedy” may be an understatement of what transpired when England, captained by Ollie Pope in place of Stokes, refused to accept the second new ball until 13.4 overs past its due time, with Harry Brook bowling 1.4 of those overs by the time it reached the middle. Prior to this match, Brook has bowled 14 overs in Test matches, eight overs during England’s last tour of New Zealand at the beginning of last year, when he took his lone wicket (Williamson, no less), and six overs during the 2023 Ashes.
Mitchell Santner was amused by the first delivery of this brief spell and pushed it out of his face. Four balls later, he fired a six over long-off, which made him smile even more. Before being pulled from the assault, Brook put down two deliveries with the fresh ball, one of which was hammered over the covers for four by Tom Blundell. After their team was bowled out for just 143 in 36 overs in their first innings and without Stokes, England’s seamers were obviously exhausted.
In fairness, left-arm spinner Jacob Bethell grabbed his first Test wicket and two more to finish with 3 for 73. England’s spinners also took the final six New Zealand wickets to fall, three of which came with the second new ball. However, Williamson’s usually calm 156 in 204 balls, which featured partnerships of 107 with Rachin Ravindra for the fourth wicket and 92 with Daryl Mitchell for the fifth, gave the impression that the visitors were clinging to thin air.
The fact that England had lost both openers by stumps with only 18 runs scored and were facing loss because they needed 640 more was not amusing. Williamson persevered through a long afternoon session after rain had halted any play before lunch. Having reached fifty minutes before the conclusion of the second day with his team already 340 runs ahead. With a booming six down the ground, he reached his 33rd Test century, his seventh at Seddon Park, and his 150 with a lofted drive over extra cover off Bethell.
After the tea break, when Williamson took full use of his opportunities to score off Stokes and offspinner Shoaib Bashir, Bethell returned to play a larger role in the assault after stepping in to finish Stokes’ over. England also had opportunities against Williamson. Replays showed that the ball came very near to clipping the bails at the top of the leg stump, but he escaped a tight LBW judgment when the umpire called off Brydon Carse at 73.
Pope also dismissed him on 86 when his effort to pull off Stokes hit the glove, but the wicketkeeper, who was flying well down the leg side, was unable to hang on. Williamson then edged out second slip on 106 after Brook misjudged his shot off Bashir and unintentionally allowed the ball to get through. But when New Zealand returned on 136 for 3, Williamson skillfully managed the innings. In the first 19 overs, he and Ravindra combined 50 runs, with the latter being more cautious than he had been in the series when he recklessly chased the ball outside off stump.
Midway through the afternoon, Ravindra began playing some shots, including a four off the Stokes short ball, which caused the England captain to pull up sore in the same hamstring he injured during the Hundred, resulting in two months on the sidelines. He was biding his time despite some targeted verbal attacks from England’s bowlers. However, Ravindra lost to Matthew Potts on 44 after failing to follow Williamson to a historic score.
With his top-edged sweep off Bashir soaring to substitute fielder Rehan Ahmed sprinting around at deep-backward square leg, Williamson was the next man out. Glenn Phillips went quickly before Blundell and Santner added another 63 runs for the ninth wicket, and Mitchell contributed 60 off 84 before holeing out to Potts to give Bethell his first. The home audience cheered loudly when Tim Southee came out after Santner had sliced Joe Root to backward point, but it was Santner’s five sixes in his 49 off only 38 balls that they wanted to watch.
They were upset when Southee holed out trying to get off Bethell with just two runs next to his name. They were desperate to see him hit the two sixes that would take him to a hundred in his last stint with the bat. But Southee wasn’t finished; he bowled Ben Duckett in his opening over before Matt Henry got rid of Zak Crawley for the sixth time in as many innings this series, pinning him leg before wicket and left England feeling less than amused.
