Cricket: Black Caps eye chance to end international summer on a high

Black Caps Ish Sodhi, Colin de Grandhomme and Neil Wagner celebrate taking a wicket against England. Photo / Photosport

New Zealand have a chance to end their international summer on a high note at Hagley Oval on Tuesday.

Of the two teams, they are certainly in the preferred position. They will start the day 42 without loss, needing a New Zealand record 382 to win the second test against England and nail a 2-0 series victory.

However they have two strings to their bow. The draw will be enough for the series victory while England must win to square the rubber.

England have lost or drawn their last 12 away tests. Their last win was at Chittagong in 2016. That's a miserable record and how they must want to end it.

They had the better of the first session on Monday, when captain Joe Root and Dawid Malan pushed their stand to 97 for the fourth wicket, extending England's lead to 291 with fast scorers to follow.

New Zealand's bowling couldn't make much headway, England were pushing on comfortably, but suddenly that turned on its head.

England lost five for 50, the chief beneficiary being Colin de Grandhomme. The allrounder had taken none for 136 off 60 overs to the point where he had Ben Stokes smartly caught at mid wicket by a diving Jeet Raval.

Famine turned to feast and de Grandhomme finished the innings with four for 94, reward for an industrious performance.

Root fell at 54, the ninth time he has passed 50 but failed to press on to 100 since his last ton, against the West Indies at Edgbaston in August. No worries, says England wicketkeeper Jonny Bairstow.

''He's averaging 52 or 53. I'd take averaging 53 in test cricket,'' Bairstow said of his skipper.

''He's scored 13 hundreds, he's only 27. I don't think it's case of worrying about how many he's converting. When it does happen he'll go from averaging 53 to who knows what.''

Trent Boult's two wickets gave him an outstanding 25 in the four home tests against the West Indies and England at 20.92 apiece.

Lefthanders Raval and Tom Latham scrapped hard to survive in the gathering gloom late yesterday.

Raval went through hoops hanging on against the lively Stuart Broad, who beat him three times in his first over, and clunked him painfully just beneath his right armpit.

Latham looked more at ease but had a life at 23, dropped at third slip by James Vince.
However there was heartening resolve by the pair to walk out on Monday. The upshot of it is that with an earlier start time of 10am and a scheduled 98 overs, all three results are possible.

But expect bad light to cut the day short. The umpires want to try and get the extra eight overs in at the end of the day, rather than start early because of morning dew. It's a premature decision, at best. There's no chance of a later finish, based on the last three days.

One thing's for sure: fewer overs will suit New Zealand far better.