Black Caps on track for rare series win

A good day’s batting stands in the way of the Black Caps sealing a memorable test series win against England.

Set 382 to win at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval, the home side will resume on 42-0 when the final day of the second test match gets under way this morning.

Chase the remaining 340 runs down and they’ll hold the record for the seventh highest run chase in test history, or crawl through the day and nab a draw - either route will seal New Zealand’s first series win against England since 1999, and just their fourth in history.

Both scenarios are a long way off, of course, and England will back themselves to take the 10 wickets to not only save the series, but to also end a 12-test winless streak abroad, which includes their innings and 49-run pasting in the first test in Auckland.

But as we’ve seen during an absorbing and somewhat seesawing opening four days, they’re not bowling on a surface you’d necessarily expect to see heading into the final day.

As England batting coach Graham Thorpe noted at stumps on day three, there’s no hidden gremlins in the wicket, which was again evident yesterday.

Sure, scoring hasn’t always been easy, and the new ball will zip around for up to 25 overs, but the pitch isn’t breaking down and doing anything hugely out of the ordinary.

Unbeaten NZ openers Tom Latham (25) and Jeet Raval (17), having blunted 23 overs under heavy cloud cover, showed a bit of patience and luck can go a long way. On the other hand England, will rue the chance James Vince bottled in the final session, when he put down Latham - on 25 at the time - at third slip.

Then there’s the fact they lost 24 overs, after bad light resulted in stumps being pulled early for a third consecutive day.

England captain Joe Root wasn’t impressed, particularly as play won’t start earlier today to makeup for lost time.

While pursuing the lofty target won’t be New Zealand’s priority, those who enjoy statistics will be interested to know a successful chase would surpass the team’s previous best chase of 324-5, recorded against Pakistan in 1994 at Christchurch’s now defunct Lancaster Park.

Root (54) and Dawid Malan (53) struck half centuries as the tourists added 150 to runs to their overnight total earlier yesterday.

With Jonny Bairstow’s late flourish the exception, England failed to accelerate their innings in the manner they were perhaps seeking when they resumed day four on 202-3.

So pedestrian was the scoring during the opening session, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson refrained from taking the new ball until the 89th over of the innings, after both Root and Malan were back in the hut.

Colin de Grandhomme, playing on the same ground he took six wickets on during his test debut in 2016, was the pick of the Kiwi attack down on firepower with Tim Southee hindered by a viral illness.

De Grandhomme finished with 4-94. His first scalp - Malan caught by Henry Nicholls at midwicket ending a remarkable run in which the first 23 wickets in the match were snapped up by the four new ball bowlers.

The Black Caps would have been spared from Bairstow’s late flurry had they not wasted both their reviews in a desperate bid to take early wickets late on day three.

Trent Boult found the outside edge of his bat when he had just one run to his name, only for umpire Marais Erasmus’ finger to stay down. Bairstow went on to score 36 from 52 balls.