0England v New Zealand: First Test, Day 3 — Match Nicely Poised

What a topsy turvy match is prov­ing to be! Three days gone and it’s still very unclear who is on top.

Until just before 6pm it was very much England’s day.  The bowl­ers stepped up to the plate and man­aged to eek out a slight lead. And then the young pre­tend­er Root hit a steady half cen­tury well sup­por­ted by the even stead­i­er Trott.

At that stage you’d have put your money on Eng­land hav­ing a 350+ lead to put to the New Zealanders.

But then, with the vis­it­ors seem­ingly run­ning out of ideas and inspir­a­tion, Eng­land man­aged some­how to throw it away. Root went and then sure as night fol­lows day so did Trott and then Bair­stow. And then Pri­or com­pleted a shock­ing game by bag­ging a pair. Last time I make any predictions!

Eng­land need anoth­er 100 tomor­row but it’s going to be tough going to say the least. New Zea­l­and will have recovered some of their bluster and Bell has noth­ing but the tail to sup­port him.

The one ace left up the sleeve for Eng­land is Swann. Back after injury, the Not­ting­ham­shire twirler has so far only sent down 8 overs but has been extract­ing some sharp turn.

Fin­gers crossed he deliv­ers the goods.