Latham, Raval fight as New Zealand chase 382

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Half-centuries from Joe Root and Dawid Malan helped England declare their second innings on 352/9, setting New Zealand a target of 382 on the fourth day of the second and final Test in Christchurch before Tom Latham and Jeet Raval helped the home side get to 42/0 when bad light stopped play on Monday 2 April.

The day started with England on 202/3 with Root and Malan in the middle. The two had come together at the fall of James Vince’s wicket on the third evening, having added 37 runs already. They stretched the partnership to 97 runs, while New Zealand were a little hamstrung with Tim Southee going off the field. That meant Kane Williamson didn’t take the new ball when it became due, but success came anyway, and from unlikely quarters.

Root had been content to play the patience game and focus on singles while Malan was a bit more enterprising, taking on Trent Boult and the others and playing some beautiful strokes. But soon after getting to 53, his seventh 50-plus score in Tests, Malan flicked Colin de Grandhomme to Henry Nicholls at mid-wicket. It was the first wicket in the Test match to fall to a bowler outside of Boult, Southee, Stuart Broad and James Anderson.

One wicket brought two, as Root nicked Neil Wagner behind to BJ Watling in the very next over to depart for 54, and England were suddenly 262/5.

De Grandhomme made it a day to remember for himself, as he went on to pick up the wickets of Ben Stokes (12), Broad (12) and Mark Wood (9) to finish with 4/94, doing a great job in Southee’s absence and getting his best returns since his Test debut in November 2016 against Pakistan, when he picked up 6/41 in his first bowling innings.

But Jonny Bairstow, fresh from a 101 in the first innings, scored a quick 36 in 54 balls with five fours – including three in one over off Boult – to make sure England didn’t lose the initiative. Bairstow helped England past 300 and then 350 before Root declared the innings at the fall of his wicket, caught at square-leg by Nicholls off Wagner (2/51).

It was then over to Raval and Latham, who had scored 5 and 0 respectively in the first innings, to make sure New Zealand stayed in the hunt, and the two opening batsmen did well.

Latham started proceedings on a positive note by flicking Anderson for four off the first ball, but the Englishmen were at the two batsmen all through to the end of the day. On one occasion, Broad hit Raval in the mid-section with a short delivery, while Anderson beat the bat more than once. There was a missed chance too, a tough one, when Anderson got Latham’s edge but Vince failed to cling on to the offer at third slip.

Unfortunately for England, they couldn’t make the most of the advantage, at least on the day, with the light deteriorating quickly and play ending 24 overs early. Ravan ended the day on 17*, while Latham got to 25*.

That left New Zealand 340 runs away from making it 2-0, while England will look to pick up the 10 wickets to end the series with honours even.