New Zealand v England: third men’s cricket Test, day two

Key events

Morning session

83rd over: New Zealand 315-9 (Santner 50, O’ Rourke 0) Atkinson’s first ball dances down the leg side, the next two whistle past the outside edge. A maiden. Over on the grassy banks, the Barmy Army have high early morning energy, though I’m glad that trumpet isn’t next to me on the sofa.

David Gower is quizzing bowling coach Jimmy Anderson. “Are you,” asks David, “an instinct or a computer coach?”

Jimmy looks bewildered: “instinct, I don’t have a computer.”

He goes on: “It was an interesting wicket. With the cloud cover yesterday morning I thought it did quite a lot, but that got less and less. I thought maybe it dried out and became slower.”

Some Saturday night stattage: Latham and Young’s partnership of 105 was the first hundred partnership of the series.

And the last five overs of Friday went for 11 runs each as Southee and Santner played whoopee.

Finally – in case you missed it – Mark Ramprakash on England’s new young guns.

And a cracking piece on the Gabba, where weather ruined the first day of the crucial third Test between Australia and India.

No cricket yet, so currently watching Last Christmas Unwrapped. Our reporter on the ground says it is currently “cracking the flags” at Seddon Park.

Here is Ali’s report from yesterday:

From a Christmas treed living room, hello! We’re back in Auckland for day two of the final Test – the series in the bag but the game in the balance.

New Zealand enjoyed a great first half to Friday, after Ben Stokes sent them in to pad up after winning the toss. But, as has happened so often this series, England’s pace bowlers got their fingernails under the bottle cap and started to nudge. A wicketless morning had steamed along to 185 for three when Kane Williamson was undone by – in the wonderful words of Ali Martin – his L’Occitane-soft hands.

From there, England picked away effectively until Santner and Southee took New Zealand past 300. There were three wickets each for Potts and Anderson, two for Carse and one for the hard-bowling Stokes.

Reports from Auckland are that it is a scorcher, but if you didn’t swim early you’ve missed high tide till late… Play starts at 10pm GMT, do join me to watch and wish you were there.