Ben Stokes led England’s spirited fightback as he moved to 250 Test wickets on a sweltering second day of his side’s Rothesay Series decider against New Zealand at Trent Bridge.
The Black Caps had been 317 for none in the final session of the first day thanks to twin hundreds from Tom Latham and Devon Conway but were all out for 438 on Friday, with Stokes collecting four for 70.
A typically bloody-minded eight-over spell from the England captain in the morning session yielded three for 13 before Shoaib Bashir and Jofra Archer finished things off after lunch.
Ben Duckett then benefited from being dropped on eight to go to tea unbeaten on 52 as England reached 73 for one, having lost Emilio Gay early on to a leg-side strangle off the dangerous Will O’Rourke.
The hosts came into day two with a bit of momentum after taking two wickets from the previous day’s final two balls. But it was only when Stokes introduced himself that England got going again following ineffective opening spells from Archer and Josh Tongue as New Zealand resumed on 361 for four.
Nightwatcher O’Rourke upgraded his Test-best of five by making 19 on a flat pitch. While he was dropped by Jamie Smith in Stokes’ first over, England’s talismanic all-rounder made the breakthrough when he had Daryl Mitchell caught behind for 11.
An initial appeal was unsuccessful but the not-out decision was overturned on review to Mitchell’s obvious chagrin, the New Zealand middle-order batter clearly unconvinced by the small spike on UltraEdge.
After O’Rourke’s cameo ended with an impatient hoick across the line, another New Zealand batter was left shaking his head at the technology.
Mitch Santner was on his way for four after getting in a terrible tangle from a Stokes bumper. Given out after seemingly gloving to Jacob Bethell, Santner reviewed in vain even though there was some debate about whether the ball had brushed the sweatband on his glove or just his armguard.
Ultimately the on-field decision of out seemed to count against Santner and Stokes celebrated becoming just the second cricketer to get to the landmark of 250 Test wickets alongside 7,000-plus Test runs after South Africa great Jacques Kallis.
Shoaib Bashir atoned for dropping Tom Blundell on 28 after lunch in the deep by taking a sharp caught and bowled chance off Nathan Smith and then dismissing Blundell, who was given lbw for 30 after missing a reverse sweep.
Blair Tickner was rattled on the helmet twice by successive bouncers from Archer, who pinned number 11 batter Ben Sears leg-before as New Zealand lost their last eight wickets for 77 runs.
Duckett bludgeoned Nathan Smith through the covers twice in the first over of the reply but the seamer hit back, extracting a bit of extra bounce to take the edge only for Henry Nicholls to spill a simple chance in the slips.
Gay had already been dismissed after gloving O’Rourke down the leg-side but Duckett made use of his let-off on his home ground, bringing up a 40-ball half-century, his highest score since the final Test of last summer.
