Ggood morning. Welcome to the England vs New Zealand live blog. This is, of course, the third test in the series and it is very likely that we will get results today. England pursues 296 to win and resumes in Headingley on 183/2. The men who haven’t gone out overnight are Joe Root (55 *) and Olly Pope (81 *). England has scored on good clips so far, and lost Alex Leeds and Zak Crawley, so it took only 39 overs to score. The latter has run out of the former.
Much has been said and written about the reset of England’s Red Ball and the installation of Ben Stokes as captain and Brendon McCallum as coach. To be sure, this series has rarely improved any further. Win from a thrilling cricket and a position that looks really tough. If they win this test today, it would be another great win as 55/6 was replying to 329.
I personally have a persistent suspicion that New Zealand is like an enemy tailored for Britain. England tends to fight teams that are fast-paced, have wrists and mystery spins, and have a lot of aggressive and sharpened characters that can tease a calm soul. Kiwi doesn’t have any of the above, and you also wonder about the McCallum factor, which has a legend for coaching (and strategy) your game against you. yet. They came here as World Test Champions, and maybe they’re whitewashed 3-0 and go home, and you’re less fair than that from England’s POV.
Explore the new era, how it’s going, and what it means throughout the morning. Play is scheduled to start at 11:00 am, but it’s raining in Leeds. The forecast for the second half of the day is better, so at some point you should see England win. Given that Kiwi can take eight ticket gates, we can get it back around 22/1. Approximately 20/1 draw.