James Anderson and Stuart Broad became just the second bowling partnership in history to claim 1,000 Test wickets together as England and New Zealand tussled for control of the day/night Test in Mount Maunganui.
Anderson’s double strike on day one Mount Maunganui took the pair to 999 dismissals in their 133rd game in tandem, and Broad carried their combined tally to four figures when he had nightwatchman Neil Wagner caught on the second afternoon.
Only the great Australian duo of Glenn McGrath and the late Shane Warne have taken more, with their tally of 1,001 highly likely to fall before England leave the Bay Oval.
England picked up four more wickets in the two daylight sessions, a decent return given the lack of assistance from ball or pitch, as half-centuries from Devon Conway (77) and Tom Blundell (80no) gave the hosts a solid foothold.
At the second break the hosts were 87 behind on 238 for eight, having gone about their business in a steadier manner than their freewheeling visitors.
Having seen England gamely declare on 325 for nine after 58.2 overs, New Zealand had reached a statelier total of 195 at the same point of their innings, but it is still possible that slow and steady could win the race.
New Zealand resumed on 37 for three on day two and soon found Wagner in the crosshairs. Anderson had an early lbw appeal and Broad had Wagner caught at fine-leg by a juggling Jack Leach, only to be called for over-stepping.
Wagner cashed in by smashing a pair of sixes off Broad, but the seamer got his revenge when a mis-hit looped up to the waiting Robinson. That brought Daryl Mitchell to the crease, a familiar face for the England attack having averaged 107.60 during last summer’s series.
But rather than continue his run of form in the fixture he bagged a duck, inexplicably withdrawing the bat as Robinson nipped one back in off the seam and rapped him plumb in front. At 83 for five, England were on the charge.
Conway is a pedigree performer though and he dug in to carve out a 98-ball half-century. He was secure against the seamers and with no suggestion of any movement through the air, Ben Stokes turned to Leach’s left-arm spin.
He and Joe Root picked up their share of the workload but did little more than hold the line as the Black Caps reached 138 for five by the first interval.
England continued to work hard in the evening’s play, prising out up three more wickets for the addition of another hundred runs.
Stokes suckered Conway into a soft departure, pounding out a spell of short-pitched bumpers and eventually persuading the number three to turn one round the corner into Ollie Pope’s hands at mid-wicket.
The skipper’s knee problems and lack of game time in the warm-up match had put question marks over his bowling but once again he delivered at a key moment for his side.
By then Blundell was settling into his task, taking his team ever closer to parity with a well-judged knock.
Michael Bracewell kept him company all too briefly before hacking Leach to mid-on and Robinson grabbed his third wicket of the innings when he slipped one through Scott Kuggeleijn’s defences and rocked his middle stump just before the session’s end.
