“Morning from a wet Auckland,” writes Chris Pitts. “Assuming England can push on this morning, what would be a lead?”

England would probably be very chuffed to get to 450, get themselves a 100-run lead? Considering where they were at lunch yesterday, any lead feels a fine achievement.

TalkSport, providing radio comms on this series, have had their cameras nicked!

William Lane writes in, offering some herbal wisdom:

Sorry to hear you’re under the weather.

Can’t go wrong with classic lemon lemsip, but I like to make my own lemon and ginger mix on the hob to stir the powdered stuff into. Tablespoon of honey in there too and you’re onto a winner.

Not much to say on the cricket itself to be honest, it’s all a bit “classic England” isn’t it? Ride our luck to be in touching distance of the first innings score with a few wickets in hand, collapse, concede a sizeable 3rd innings score before an all-time great chase in the fourth innings. Yawn….

Mark Quinn’s having a lovely time. As I crank up my electric heater, the jealousy grows. “Longterm reader first time writer… Just thought I’d drop you a line as we’re on holidays in Christchurch. Watching test cricket barefoot sat on a grass bank was a real joy, and to top it off, it was a cracking day yesterday. The first session looked tricky yesterday but would be fantastic for Stokes to get a century in his birthplace…”

Elsewhere in the Test game, there’s this mad scorecard. Aside from the obvious ‘Sri Lanka, what you doing?!?!?’, it’s worth noting that Temba Bavuma, a fine player who struggles to convert his fifties, has got his third Test ton.

Where does Ollie Pope want Ollie Pope to bat? He’s made it pretty clear, despite an impressive knock at No 6 on day two.

Preamble