England fought tooth and nail for every last scrap of success with the ball to give themselves a great chance of a grandstand finish on day five.
Bat might have dominated ball for vast swathes of this game, but pressure does funny things to people and for New Zealand it might just have made them crack. The pitch is still good for batting which is why they knew they needed to turn their slender 14 run first innings lead into something much more substantial.
But the way they went about it - with two run outs so far in their second innings - showed just how nerve-wracking the tension can get once a five day game reaches the business end. At 224-7 and a lead of 238, there is already a target that will take some chasing whenever England get the chance to strap the pads on.
But with Joe Root in the target chasing mood after hitting the winning runs in a Test match at Lord’s for the third time in his career and with England oozing confidence out of every pore, it doesn’t feel like it is anywhere near enough just yet.
And with New Zealand likely to be without their giant pace bowler Kyle Jamieson for the task after back pain ruled him out of action on day four, the England dressing room will be in a bullish mood.
Winning a Test on a Jubilee Sunday at Lord’s is one thing, but can they do it on a working Tuesday in Nottingham though? It won’t be for a lack of effort on the previous Monday as Jimmy Anderson yet again set the standard for others to follow with his 650th, yes six hundred and fiftieth Test wicket.
He conned left hander Tom Latham into thinking the ball would swing harmlessly away from trouble, but instead it zeroed in on his middle stump and his leave was a bad one. Devon Conway and Will Young batted with such ease thereafter that the draw seemed like it might be the only real option for this game.
Conway in particular found runs as easy to come by as a curry along the nearby Maid Marian Way, reverse-sweeping Jack Leach to distraction. But a top-edged orthodox sweep broke their 100-run partnership and opened the game up for a terrific afternoon of action.
With wickets falling the Kiwis kept coming, with Michael Bracewell taking the positive approach to the extreme thrashing 25 from just 17 balls in the hunt for quick runs. Yet again Daryl Mitchell appears to be the mainstay of the New Zealand effort with 32 not out as they try to eke out a few more runs in the morning before setting about England’s order.
“We want to win Test matches for our country,” said Bracewell. “We play our cricket positively and we always felt like a result was possible so it will be an exciting final day. We need to get as many as we can and then set about getting those ten England wickets.”
At the start of the day Ben Foakes and Root picked up where they left off the night before with an early burst of boundaries to take their partnership to 111 for the sixth wicket and make a first innings lead a distinct probability. One shot from Root in particular off Tim Southee was quite extraordinary as he reverse ramped him over what was third man for six.
Poor old Southee was taken for 33 from his opening three overs of the day as Foakes reached his second Test fifty and backed up his encouraging performance from Lord’s. But once Root was surprisingly dismissed for 176, things tapered off quicker than expected with the last five wickets falling for just 23 runs.
