Nottingham: New Zealand lost Henry Nicholls and Devon Conway amid a spell of probing seam bowling from England and went to tea at 195-4 on Day 1 of the second Test at Trent Bridge today.
Resuming after lunch on 108-2, the third-wicket partnership between Nicholls and Conway had moved to 77 when Nicholls - dropped on 16 by Zak Crawley in the slips - edged England captain Ben Stokes to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes for 30.
Inside edge
Three overs later, Foakes took another catch when Conway (46) got an inside edge off a delivery from veteran paceman Jimmy Anderson that nipped back off the seam.
England was now into the middle order but Daryl Mitchell (20) and Tom Blundell (7) held firm to the end of the session. Blundell, however, should have departed for a duck, only for Joe Root to put down a simple catch at first slip off Stokes.
Put into bat under a cloudy sky in Nottingham, New Zealand openers Tom Latham - the stand-in captain - and Will Young put on 84 runs for the first wicket before departing off successive balls.
Young (47) edged Stokes to Crawley at second slip and Anderson enticed a mis-hit pull shot from Latham that sailed into the hands of Matthew Potts at midwicket for 26.
Pick of the bowlers
Anderson had 2-35 off 15 overs, while Stokes was probably the pick of the bowlers with 2-40.
The pressure was on the New Zealanders, who lost the first Test of the three-match series by five wickets at Lord’s last week and also lost the toss in windy and overcast conditions at Trent Bridge.
They were also missing regular captain Kane Williamson, who tested positive for the coronavirus late Thursday and was forced to isolate.
Latham, who said he would have chosen to bowl if he had won the toss, handed a Test debut to Michael Bracewell, an allrounder in an all-pace attack. England was unchanged from Lord’s.
