Josh Tongue admitted England have missed the influence of Ben Stokes after a day in which they crumbled to the brink of defeat in the second Test against New Zealand at the Oval. While they were doing so the team’s full-time captain, forced out of international duty for disciplinary reasons, was 275 miles north at Chester-le-Street, scoring a swashbuckling 95 for Durham in the County Championship.
England ended the fourth day on 182 for five, a distant 281 from victory, after the tourists scored 362 in their second innings. The home side have worked this week under the interim captaincy of Joe Root, on whose back their slender hopes once again lie, after he became the second player in Test history to pass 14,000 career runs on his way to an unbeaten 75,
