Kane Williamson scored another special century and formed another tenacious stand at the Basin Reserve, but those efforts will likely end as footnotes in another England triumph.
The tourists will begin the fifth and final day of the second and final test trailing by 210 runs and with nine wicketsin hand, after the Black Caps were dismissed today for a spirited but likely insufficient 483.
The hosts lost their last five wickets for 28 runs when a bit of lower-order resistance might have made things very interesting, but their first-innings failure loomed larger.
Having dug themselves too deep a hole on day two, New Zealand responded by compiling the biggest total of the series, taking a lead of 257 with 45 minutes to bowl this evening.
That period saw the England openers blaze a few unconvincing boundaries and, after surviving a run-out chance, saw Zak Crawley bowled out by Tim Southee. But Ben Duckett and nightwatchman Ollie Robinson survived to stumps, leaving the match in the balance but weighted in one direction.
Only three sides in 150 years of test cricket have claimed victory after being made to follow on. While the Black Caps have an outside chance of adding to that elite list, the most likely outcome remains England winning the match and sweeping the series.
Such a result would be much less straightforward than they would have once envisaged.
On Sunday morning, Brendon McCullum’s men must have been eyeing a three-day triumph, having been forced to return for one session on the fourth day of their first-test victory at Bay Oval.
Instead, with five New Zealand batsmen passing 50, and with Williamson recording his 26th ton after earlier becoming his country’s highest test runscorer, the fans being admitted free to the Basin tomorrow will witness a good chunk of cricket.
But England will be far from overawed about the task awaiting them. In June, McCullum began his reign by watching his charges succeed easily in each chase they faced against the touring Black Caps: 277, in 78.5 overs; 299, in 50; and 296, in 54.2.
A team who have scored at least 325 in three innings this series will be supremely confident of knocking off the remainder and handing New Zealand their first test series defeat at home since 2017, despite Williamson’s endeavour.
The former skipper this morning started chipping away at what had been a 24-run deficit, needing four balls to flick James Anderson to the fence and surpass Ross Taylor’s record of 7683 test runs.
Henry Nicholls quickly fell to Ollie Robinson for 29, sending a thick edge to a juggling Harry Brooks at third slip, but his 55-run stand with Williamson was soon followed a couple of greater significance.
After the hosts had advanced, effectively, to 0-4, Daryl Mitchell swept his way to a fast start. The all-rounder registered 50 by dancing down the wicket and smacking Jack Leach for six, and Williamson followed his partner to that milestone an over later.
Mitchell then departed for a run-a-ball 54 when he attempted to pull Stuart Broad but skied a catch behind the stumps, ending a 75-run stand that while valuable was still inadequate in search of a competitive target.
Tom Blundell attacks Jack Leach, who finished with a five-wicket bag. Photo / photosport.nz
That much-needed partnership would arrive when Tom Blundell joined Williamson and initiated the latest memorable sixth-wicket third-innings stand as this venue between a great of the game and a gritty wicketkeeper.
This one didn’t quite reach the 350-plus levels of Williamson-Watling or McCullum-Watling, but the 158 runs did give their side just about enough to mount a decent defence.
The pair progressed to 325-5 at lunch, a lead of 99 after scoring a series-high 123 runs in the session, as Blundell again fed well on a diet of short-pitch bowling.
Williamson looked in increasingly vintage touch, carving Jack Leach off the back foot one ball before chipping him over the field the next, soon cutting Stuart Broad to the fence and bringing up his 26th test century.
The home side saw out the middle session without a setback, sparking thoughts even of a potential declaration. As it turned out, they were saving all the setbacks for an unsightly half-hour after tea.
The collapse began when, bowling for the first time in test cricket, Harry Brook collected an unforgettable first scalp, Williamson (132) feathering a catch around the corner to Ben Foakes.
As bad as Williamson would have felt about that dismissal, Michael Bracewell had good reason to feel worse, being caught with his bat hanging lazily in the air and run out by Ben Stokes while at walking pace.
Southee was never going to repeat his day-three fireworks show, falling for two, Matt Henry came and went for a three-ball duck, and Blundell (90) went down swinging to wrap up the innings in rapid style.
The Black Caps will now have to do likewise tomorrow.
