Key events
Morning session
83rd over: New Zealand 315-9 (Santner 50, O’Rourke 0) Atkinson’s first ball bounces down the leg side, the second whistle goes over the edge for two. Virgin On the grassy banks, the Barmy Army have high energy in the morning, although I’m glad the trumpet isn’t on the couch next to me.
David Gower quizzing bowling coach Jimmy Anderson. “Are you,” said David, “an instinct or a computer coach?”
Jimmy looked stunned: “Instinct, I don’t have a computer.”
He continued: “It used to be an interesting wicket. Yesterday morning I thought there was quite a lot of cloud cover, but less and less. I thought maybe it dried up and became slower.’
Some Saturday night stattage; Latham and Young’s partnership of 105 was the first partnership of the series.
And Friday’s last five overs went for 11 runs each as Southee and Santner played whoopee.
Finally – if you miss it – Mark Ramprakash in England’s new youth guns.
And he burst into the Gabbawhere the weather had disrupted the first day of the crucial third Test between Australia and India.
Not yet crickets as currently viewing Last Christmas Unwrapped. Our correspondent on the ground says that there are now “crawls” at Seddon Park.
Here is Ali’s report from yesterday:
From the abode of the Christmas tree, hail! We’re back in Auckland for two days of the final Test – the series in the bag but the game in the balance.
New Zealand enjoyed a great first half on Friday after Ben Stokes put them on the pad after a winning toss. But, as has happened so often in this series, England’s pace bowlers got their claws under the bottle caps and started digging. The morning steamrolled the wicket to 185 for three when Kane Williamson perished in Ali Martin’s wonderful words – with his L’Occitane-soft hands.
From there England picked up effectively until Santner and Southee took New Zealand past three hundred. There were three wickets each for Potts and Anderson, two for Carse and one for Stokes.
The reports from Auckland are that it’s bad, but if you don’t swim early you’ll be in the heat until late… Play starts at 10pm GMT, so I’ll be watching and wanting to be there.