Matt Potts inspires England fightback on day one as New Zealand suffer afternoon collapse to end on 315-9 – with Ben Stokes giving his side an encouraging fitness boost
It all seemed to happen in slow motion – and it was the moment England began to wonder whether the first day of the third Test might be turning in their favour.
At the ground he calls home, Kane Williamson had moved ominously to 44 shortly after tea, with New Zealand 185 for three and looking happy with life after Ben Stokes had asked them to bat.
For once, though, Williamson’s soft hands got him into trouble. Playing a ball from Matthew Potts with characteristic lateness, he was horrified to see it bounce down into the ground, then back towards his stumps. Williamson tried to intercept the ball with an outstretched right leg, but he couldn’t catch up.
As it ricocheted into middle and leg, New Zealand knew their best chance of a match-defining first-innings total might have come and gone.
At 105 without loss soon after lunch, they had been making England toil on a surface that kept the seamers interested, but allowed little margin for error.
Yet the wicket of Williamson was part of a collapse in which the hosts lost seven for 126, and England confirmed one of the trends of the past few weeks: when the game is the balance, they are the team likelier to grab it.
England fought back on day one of the third Test to reduce New Zealand to 315-9 in Hamilton
It was Matthew Potts’ wicket of Kane Williamson that helped turn the day in England’s favour
Potts, who replaced Chris Woakes, took three wickets in what is just his fourth Test of the year
At stumps, after a flurry of boundaries against England’s short-ball tactics, New Zealand had reached 315 for nine – still short of par at a venue that often flattens out.
That the day should have turned on a duel between Potts, playing his first game of the series after replacing Chris Woakes, and Williamson was perhaps the least surprising part of it.
Back in the summer of 2022, when Potts embarked on what has since been a stop-start Test career, he removed Williamson three times during England’s 3-0 win. This latest dismissal took his record against New Zealand’s lynchpin to four wickets for 11 runs in 50 balls – not quite rabbit territory, but certainly scope for bragging rights.
Seddon Park, after all, is where Williamson scores runs with his eyes closed. Four of his six most recent Test innings here are 200 not out, 104 not out, 251 and 133 not out. In all, it has witnessed six of his 32 Test hundreds. Even after this dismissal, his Hamilton Test average was 91. For England to get rid of him six short of a half-century was a minor triumph.
He was one of three wickets for Potts, who can count himself unlucky to be appearing in only his fourth Test of the 17 England have played this year, and may yet force his way into the workhorse role for next winter’s Ashes.
He had begun with a fortuitous leg-side strangle to get rid of New Zealand captain Tom Latham for 63, and later induced a rash drive from Glenn Phillips, who was caught at deep backward point by Zak Crawley for five.
And Potts’s performance was the centrepiece of what turned into a good day for England as they go in search of the first 3-0 whitewash in New Zealand by a visiting side since Australia 25 years ago.
Not far behind was Gus Atkinson, nearing the end of a triumphant first year in Test cricket.
Gus Atkinson also took three to reach 50 Test wickets in the fast bowler’s 11th Test
Ben Stokes got through 23 overs and bowled with gusto in an encouraging sign for England
Harry Brook took a great catch on the boundary to help him dismiss Matt Henry late in the day
New Zealand great Tim Southee received a guard of honour in his 107th and final Test match
He began England’s fightback when he had Will Young well caught low down at second slip by Harry Brook for 42. And when he removed the dangerous Daryl Mitchell, well caught by a tumbling Stokes at mid-off for 14, Atkinson brought up 50 wickets in only his 11th Test. The last England bowler to get there in fewer games was Ian Botham, in his 10th, in 1978.
Brydon Carse didn’t let blisters on his left foot detract from another wholehearted effort.
He had Rachin Ravindra skewing to the squarer of two gulleys for a typically unfulfilled 18 in the last over before tea. Later, Carse persuaded Tom Blundell – fresh from his futile second-innings century in Wellington – to carve high to cover, where Jacob Bethell made the chance look easy.
All the while, Stokes ran in with gusto, sending down as many overs – 23 – in a Test innings as he has done since March 2022. He was finally rewarded when Matt Henry, after pulling one six over fine leg, was superbly held on the rope by Brook, dancing off the pitch, then back on it, and skilfully keeping the ball under control.
Tim Southee, in his 107th and final Test, walked out to a guard of honour from England’s fielders, and promptly pulled Stokes for two sixes, then Atkinson for a third, taking his career tally to 98. When he aimed for a fourth, Carse was under the catch at mid-off.
New Zealand were grateful for a lively unbeaten 50 from Mitchell Santner, reached with a straight six off Potts’s last ball of the evening. But this – in the end – was England’s day.
