The entire third day’s play was washed out due to persistent rain in London. Getting a result from this ongoing first Test between England and New Zealand at Lord’s will be a race against time.
On Day 2, New Zealand had built on debutant Devon Conway’s chanceless 347-ball 200 by taking two early England wickets. Rory Burns and Joe Root then mounted a recovery. In response to New Zealand’s 378, England were 111/2 at stumps on Day 2 with Burns on 59 and Root on 42, their partnership up to 93. The pair batted through the third session to pull England out of a spot after they were left tottering at 18/2.
In the end it was England’s day at the ‘Home of Cricket’. They gained a foothold in the match after an opening day dominated by the New Zealanders.
Day 4: What to expect
First thing first: the Met department has predicted no rain on Saturday. We can expect the entire 98 overs to be bowled. In fact, they could have played even further but unfortunately the ICC rules are not flexible enough, despite the circumstances.
It will be mostly a sunny day with a bit of cloud cover towards the afternoon but the chances of precipitation is almost nil.
England still trail by 267 runs. The ball is 43 overs old. There is hardly any unevenness on the two-day-old surface. Hence, under these conditions one can expect the batters to have the advantage at the start of the day.
The first job for the England batters will be to save the follow-on, which seems more of a formality. However, after crossing 179, they can be a little more adventitious if they want to extract a result out of this Test match.
However, given that this is their first Test match of a long season, England are unlikely to make any unusual move. In all probability, they will try and not do anything overly adventurous. They would probably want to allow their inexperienced batting line-up some time in the middle.
The New Zealand seam bowlers should not mind bowling in these conditions. They know that if they can get Root early, the floodgates might open, as we witnessed in the morning session of Day 2.
The first innings holds the key for both teams in this Test match. Any significant lead to any of these opponents can be decisive. But even if one team gains significant advantage, will there be enough time left in the game to enforce a result? As things stand now, that seems highly unlikely.