England dominate, Guptill apart
A defiant Martin Guptill halfcentury aside, England’s bowlers emerged from their final pre-test shakedown in Hamilton with a spring in their cricket spikes.
New Zealand XI captain Guptill, batting at three, hit 73 in a tick under three hours but it was the only prolonged resistance England encountered on day one of the twoday red ball practice match.
The 10th wicket fell with 232 on the board, in the 72nd over, before the NZ XI openers got another turn late in the day under the rule where both sides bat 90 overs with unlimited wickets.
Unlike the pink ball match there were no Black Caps test players in the local lineup, while England fielded a shadow test XI minus Ben Stokes.
The allrounder sat out Friday to again rest a back injury but batted in the nets and is expected to bat on Saturday and prove his readiness for Thursday’s first test in Auckland.
From the moment opener Glenn Phillips wafted loosely at Chris Woakes in the day’s second over, the second tier of New Zealand batsmen never really got back in it at Seddon Park.
Guptill, who played the last of his 47 tests in October 2016, was impressive. He drove strongly down the ground and through extra cover and twice deposited test offspinner Moeen Ali over the rope.
His knock was ended by test frontliner Jimmy Anderson, as Guptill was enticed by a full, wide offering and touched an edge.
Stuart Broad, Anderson’s test new ball partner, looked ready to go. Broad welcomed top Plunket Shield runscorer Greg Hay to the next level when he shot one through a rather wide gate and sent his middle cartwheeling for 23.
Backup test wicketkeeper Tom Blundell capped an eventful few days, having hit 131 not out off the England bowlers with the pink ball on Wednesday.
This time things didn’t go so well for Blundell, who called through his wicketkeeping rival Tim Seifert for an ambitious single.
Blundell advanced to Moeen and drove to deepish mid-off, called and ran, and Black Caps Twenty20 gloveman Seifert was caught short at the striker’s end by an accurate Dawid Malan throw. He made just two. Blundell’s concentration was suitably thrown, and in Moeen’s next over he chipped a catch to short midwicket, for 22.
Moeen then had another T20 international, Mark Chapman, brilliantly caught by James Vince at short leg when he thrust his bat in front of pad on nine. That made it 130-6.
Broad picked up a second when Logan van Beek pushed away from his pad, then another Wednesday centurion Kyle Jamieson took on the boundary rider at cow corner and lost, giving Moeen his third.
Jamieson made 38 off 35 balls. stump