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England have really worked on not moving their feet.

Stoneman lucky again. What is that shot.

Geez Cook's in trouble. That was a terrible dismissal. Ok, the ball's doing a little bit, but for an opener to be bowled like that completely missing the ball beggars belief. Terrible footwork. And Stoneman's already had several close calls.

At this rate, I'd probably take 3 down by lunch.

Id be tempted to slot Cook in at 5 or 6 to shield him from the new ball. At the moment, when bowlers get movement he is just wafting that bat out there, head is not over the ball, feet are stuck on the crease. Cant play opener and expect to do well if you are not seeing the line of the ball correctly. When it doesnt swing, he at least has the mindset to attempt to bat long

sussexpob wrote:Id be tempted to slot Cook in at 5 or 6 to shield him from the new ball. At the moment, when bowlers get movement he is just wafting that bat out there, head is not over the ball, feet are stuck on the crease. Cant play opener and expect to do well if you are not seeing the line of the ball correctly. When it doesnt swing, he at least has the mindset to attempt to bat long

Interesting idea. It might be worth considering. But England have to find two openers in the summer - we've had difficulty enough finding one. Hameed presumably will have another go if he gets his form back, but who else? I'd be tempted to give Robson another shot, I thought he was hard done by.

For Cook, he needs to go back to Essex and work on his game. That said, he scored prolifically in the CC last summer, and actually had an OK series against South Africa (his 88 at the Oval in tough conditions was match defining, and he had another 60 and two 40s - not amazing, but not bad). But since then, it's been two 200s and 15 failures.

Vince is surely gone here

Nope. Well well, is hawkeye on the piss, I thought that looked dead.

Stoneman is on life 4 now.... if he doesnt make a big score with this many lives, then when will he

sussexpob wrote:Id be tempted to slot Cook in at 5 or 6 to shield him from the new ball. At the moment, when bowlers get movement he is just wafting that bat out there, head is not over the ball, feet are stuck on the crease. Cant play opener and expect to do well if you are not seeing the line of the ball correctly. When it doesnt swing, he at least has the mindset to attempt to bat long

Cook is far too stubborn for that surely

sussexpob wrote:Vince is surely gone here

Nope. Well well, is hawkeye on the piss, I thought that looked dead.

Stoneman is on life 4 now.... if he doesnt make a big score with this many lives, then when will he

England could be five down by now, but all that happens is the Kiwis blow a review.

Stoneman's got more lives than my cat this morning. I can't believe he's still there.

bigfluffylemon wrote:

sussexpob wrote:Vince is surely gone here

Nope. Well well, is hawkeye on the piss, I thought that looked dead.

Stoneman is on life 4 now.... if he doesnt make a big score with this many lives, then when will he

England could be five down by now, but all that happens is the Kiwis blow a review.

Stoneman's got more lives than my cat this morning. I can't believe he's still there.

There was something about the fact that Vince let two balls go, missed a bad ball with a drive on his third, then seemingly decided to smash his fourth in frustration and missed a good ball by a long way, that says to me, hmmmmm.....

Not a test player

Broad is back at eight!

Sounds tough batting out there. And good bowling.

Great toss to win.

Ball has moved more than the first test. New Zealand have bowled well, and could have easily run past this top 3 with a bit more luck. Stoneman is all over the place, and Vince has played a couple of nice boundaries, but hes looking to take the bait, which is never good.

One positive, is Stoneman just managed to move his head out of the way of a bouncer...

Only took 31 years

Nine runs from Steely in three innings in the series.

sussexpob wrote:England just dropped a player who scored 60% of their runs in the first innings of the last test.

Woakes got a fifty in the second innings too.

sussexpob wrote:Ball has moved more than the first test. New Zealand have bowled well, and could have easily run past this top 3 with a bit more luck. Stoneman is all over the place, and Vince has played a couple of nice boundaries, but hes looking to take the bait, which is never good.

Couldn't have put it better.