By: Mohit Singhal
ENG VS NZ Match: The day was full of bright sunshine with clouds moving throughout the day over the Trent Bridge Stadium and a wholesome cheering crowd of English fans with some sparkles of Kiwi fans, Jimmy Anderson swinging the new shiny ball and batters leaving the ball with sweetness; absolute delightful to cherish the beauty of test cricket.
New Zealand started the day on a positive note pushing English bowlers on the backfoot when the openers accumulated 84 runs for the first wicket in just 20 overs to set the day well poised towards the Tom Latham-led side after Kane Williamson was forced to sit out following to be the new catch of the covid 19 disease.
Kiwi openers in Skipper Tom Latham (26) and Will Young laid the strong foundation in the must-win match for the blackcaps where the later punched 47 off 70 balls before opposition captain Ben Stokes handed the first blow to the Kiwis which marked with fall of another wicket in the following over where veteran Jimmy Anderson scalped his 648th test wicket in Latham.
Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls added runs in a flurry stitching 77-runs for the third wicket when the repeat telecast happened.
Once again it was Captain who provided another wicket to the side removing Henry Nicholls for 30.
The 39-year-old legend put hand-in-hand with his skipper edging the ball behind off Conway's bat to leave visitors at 169/4.
But the resistance came from Kiwi's first match heroes when Daryl Mitchell who scored a century at Lord's started to build his innings and sliced often to the boundaries to remain unbeaten at 81 in 147 balls with 9 fours and 2 Sixes
He got a perfect shoulder in Tom Blundell who stood there till the evening notching up the 6th half-century of his Test career and remained not out on 67 in 136 balls smashing 8 fours.
The English side will look back in the dressing room and missed chances will haunt them in this test match unless we can see another Joe Root epic. It's still 4 days to go.
