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England faded quickly on the second day of the third Test New Zealandcrumbles for a paltry 143 with pitiful batting at Hamilton.
After finally bowling out the hosts for 347, which took them more than an hour to end a frustrating fight for the last wicket, they fell in a heap in the afternoon session.
From 77 for two they collapsed without a trace, losing their last five men for just nine runs.
Surrey-born seamer Will O’Rourke took the initiative for the Black Caps, bringing down Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook and Joe Root in the space of eight transformative deliveries.
The 6ft 4in seamer played with speed, smarts and a sharp dive to rip the heart out of the middle order, including the first golden duck of Brook’s international career. Days after being crowned the number one batsman in the world, Brook was hauling his stumps for the opener.
England flirted with a return as Ollie Pope and Ben Stokes they put on 52 but their resolve was fleeting as a series of loose dismissals in a hurry followed.
Left-armer Mitchell Santner, the last man on 76 in the first innings, then claimed three wickets for seven runs.
With a lead of 204, New Zealand could have chosen to send England straight back, but instead chose not to follow on. Instead, they will push the tired tourists’ attack straight back into action after just 35.4 overs of rest.
England’s day began with a torturous 15 overs in the field, Stokes using strange defensive fields and cautious tactics in pursuit of the final Kiwi wicket.
Just 32 runs were added to the score as Santner and O’Rourke played the role of spoilers, but England were unusually passive until Matthew Potts finally grabbed the last wicket.
Their reply got off to a flying start, Zak Crawley hitting four driven boundaries in Tim Southee’s first over in a bid to ease the mounting pressure on him. But his unsettling tour continued as Matt Henry dismissed him for the fifth time in five attempts, lunging athletically to take the catch and bowled.
Crawley’s cameo of 21 took his run to 47 at a worrying average of 9.40. Not content with continuing his hot streak against Crawley, Henry removed Ben Duckett just four balls later with a textbook lbw.
That left Bethell and Root, the smallest and most experienced players, in charge of rebuilding, but their efforts failed after the lunch break. O’Rourke was the catalyst, which turned into a terrible explosion.
After forcing Bethell onto the back foot with a series of short deliveries, he bowled fuller and watched the 21-year-old obligingly carve out backward point.
Brook’s arrival has often meant big runs this winter, but this time the magic touch left him, diverting his first ball into the stumps before staring up at the sky in surprise.
O’Rourke’s inspired work continued with a crucial dismissal of Root, after the right-hander lifted the ball and slotted back to run out of space. Instead of avoiding, Root turned towards deep third and picked off Glenn Phillips.
Pope (24) and Stokes (27) broke the chaos briefly, sharing 10 boundaries as they tried to land some shots of their own, but a quick end followed.
Pope carelessly poked Santner to slip and Stokes overstepped to fall lbw at the pull. That left the tail trying to recover, but Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Potts came and went in quick succession to round out a formidable innings in quick time.