As it happened – England vs New Zealand, 1st Test, Lord's, 3rd day
All the updates, news and stats from day three of the first Test at Lord’s
Alan Gardner04-Jun-2021*Most recent entry will appear at the top, please refresh your page for the latest updates. All times are local4.35pm: Play abandoned
And with one final squelch, they’ve pulled the plug. The umpires came out for a good look around, but it seems too much rain has fallen even for the Lord’s drainage to cope with. We’ll try again tomorrow, with 98 overs to be bowled from 11am. The English summer of cricket has well and truly landed, folks.4.15pm: Tick tockOkay, let’s stay patient. Seems like there’s not a whole lot of rain around, though equally no sign of the groundstaff out in the middle. If we can still theoretically get going by 6pm, then the covers probably need to be peeled off by 5pm. So we’re heading towards decision time.There have only been two full-day washouts at Lord’s since 2001, but they’ve both come in the last three years – India in 2018 and Australia 2019. Can 2021 be saved from a watery grave?3.25pm: Splish, splashStill coming down at Lord’s, and presumably tea will not be moving from its usual slot. There’s a filthy great patch of rain over London and the southeast on the radar that’s now almost moved through… But if skies haven’t cleared in the next half an hour or so, you’d have to think they’ll be close to applying the mercy blow. Which would be rubbish, because this game is intriguingly poised.2.45pm: All filler, no killerHappy 30th birthday to Ben Stokes. Who remembers that rain delayed the start of the 2019 World Cup final? Not quite as much as we’ve had today, mind.
2.20pm: Be more Neil Wagner
If Neil Wagner tells the ball to get over the rope, you know it’s happening.2pm: Cats, dogs, etcThe covers were on throughout the third morning•AFP/Getty Images
If this was anywhere else but Lord’s, you’d think they might have called it now. The rain is coming down steadily, and you could probably find Nemo in one of the larger puddles forming on the edge of the square. However, there’s still a chance it’ll brighten up in an hour or two, and *Lord’s Drainage Klaxon* the groundstaff will have things mopped up and ready to go by 5pm.1pm: Lunch
Let’s get all meta and embed a self-referential tweet, because why not? There is a whole heap of not a lot happening here, though the rain may have slackened off a touch. Lunch was officially kept to 1pm, so the players will banging their cutlery on the tables by now, demanding chow. Hopefully Devon Conway will take his overloaded plate off to sit below the away dressing room honours board and look smug.If it’s actual you’re after, then old faithful, the County Championship, is your best bet. Contrary to rumour, stumps in the ground doesn’t automatically cause a summer downpour here in the UK.12.15pm: And the band played onStill very dreich and drear at Lord’s – though, on the plus side for Kane Williamson, the players will probably be let loose on the catering pretty soon.Do tweet us using the #LiveReport hashtag with your best idle pastimes and wet weather bantz, by the way, since doom-scrolling is all we’ve got right now. Strikes me there’s something familiar about the fella modelling Nottingham Forest’s new kit, but I can’t quite be sure…
11.30am: Southee speaks, we listenTim Southee appeals for the wicket of Rory Burns•Getty Images
Tim Southee had a chat with Sky before, ahem, play this morning. As you would imagine, he had plenty of praise for Conway, who score more than half of New Zealand’s total – but suggested the fact their innings fell away after England dug out Henry Nicholls gave them hope that there was a bit in the surface for the bowlers, especially against batters new to the crease.”His [Conway’s] innings was incredible when you look at the rest of the innings. We needed someone to go big and he was the guy to go big. Henry Nicholls [also] showed once you get in [you could score], and they formed a crucial partnership, we were just over 100 for 3 and the game was teetering on the edge and they were able to put a partnership together.”Yes we probably didn’t kick on through the middle and lower order as we would have liked but I think that shows as well that, if you get in you can make runs, but if you can break that partnership and open up an end it is tough to start on. So hopefully we can capitalise on that this morning, with two guys that are in and forming a nice partnership – but we know if we can break that and put some pressure on the guys coming in, it’s not that easy to start on.”Obviously, there’s been no chance for the New Zealand seamers to have a crack so far, but you’d imagine that a bit of weather around won’t harm their chances of breaking the Burns-Root stand and getting a look at England’s green middle order.”We started nice with the two early wickets but we’ve got two guys now that are set. If you get in, you can get used to the pace of the wicket and go big, like Devon did. So as a bowling group, we know we’re going to have to execute our plans for a long period of time and when we do make that breakthrough hopefully we can make the most of that and grab a couple of wickets at a time. We know it’s not going to be easy, we saw a little bit of variable bounce yesterday afternoon so hopefully we can exploit that.”Keep it simple, there’s talk about when the clouds are around here the ball tends to a little bit more [so] it’s just about putting the ball in the right areas for long periods of time, asking questions for long period of time. Nothing changes from our point of view, we’ve just got to do it better for long. I think we did it okay at times yesterday but it’s about being better for longer as a group and hopefully we can make some early inroads.”11am: Nothing to see hereThe covers are firmly in place at Lord’s, where sadly it is hosing down right now. We all know about the legendary drainage, but given the forecast it would be a surprise to see much in the way of play this morning. Is it too much to say that the sight of a crowd huddling in the stands while it rains is a comforting one, after last summer’s behind-closed-doors fare? Probably… But anyway, here are some reheated Devon Conway stats to keep you going for now.
10.30am: Morning callHello and welcome back to the #LiveReport, with the Lord’s Test limbering up for what could be a pivotal day. England had to battle in the shadow of Devon Conway’s double-bubble debut ton, slipping to an uneasy 18 for 2 before the two most-experienced members of a youthful batting line-up made sure they got their hands dirty. Rory Burns and Joe Root kept New Zealand’s vigorous and varied attack at bay until the close on day two, but will have to restart this morning in their attempts to set up the England first innings. Or, at least, they will have to restart at some point – when that may be looks a little uncertain, with rain falling steadily in the capital and a delayed start in prospect.