Key events

18m ago Root reaches 14,000 Test runs
34m ago WICKET! Bethell LBW b Jamieson 0 (England 13-2)
38m ago WICKET! Gay c Ravindra b Jamieson 11 (England 13-1)
1h ago NZ 362 all out!
1h ago WICKET! Smith c Gay b Fisher 38 (NZ 362-9)
1h ago WICKET! Jamieson b Fisher 6 (NZ 355-8)
2h ago WICKET! Mitchell b Fisher 68 (NZ 349-7)
2h ago A modest proposal
2h ago Lunch: NZ finding it too easy
3h ago WICKET! Phillips c Bethell b Archer 3 (NZ 307-6)
3h ago Drinks: England better, NZ still in charge
3h ago Wicket! Blundell c Rew b Baker 16 (NZ 290-5)
4h ago WICKET! Nicholls c Brook b Archer 121 (NZ 261-4)
4h ago Dropped!
5h ago Preamble

Ben Stokes has made a rapid half-century, his first in 2026, for Durham against Northants. Every bloody cloud, my son, every blood cloud.

11th over: England 25-2 (Duckett 7, Root 6) Blundell is up to the stumps for Root, who looks uncomfortable as a result. Henry is bowling wicket to wicket, with a bit of nip, and has an LBW appeal caught in the throat when Root gets a late inside-edge onto the pad. That would have been really close.

10th over: England 22-2 (Duckett 7, Root 3) Duckett's strike-rate has gone 144 in the first innings to 30 in the second, and I say that as a compliment. He's battling hard and showing good defensive technique. If and when he ends this irritating trot of nothing scores, someone is going to pay.

"Rooooooooooooot," says James Brough. "How many of those 14,000 Tset runs do we reckon were guided to third man or flicked to midwicket? And do we think he'll manage to pass Sachin and become the first to 16,000?"

Only a dodgy back or the apocalypse can stop him.

8th over: England 20-2 (Duckett 5, Root 3) A maiden from Henry to Root. For all the weirdness of the series so far, it's set up a for a cracking series decider at Trent Bridge next week. England last true series decider on home soil was against South Africa in 2022.

8th over: England 20-2 (Duckett 5, Root 3) Another menacing over form Jamieson, who is bowling his best spell of the series to date.

Root is not out

Indeed it was, by quite a way, so New Zealand lose a review.

New Zealand review for LBW against Root!

No shot offered but I reckon it's missing off.

Root passes 14,000 Test runs

7th over: England 19-2 (Duckett 5, Root 2) Thanks Tim, hello everyone. Sorry for the missing sixth over - I'm running late due to a bus cancellation, but I'm here tell you that Joe Root has just taken a quick single off Matt Henry. It's also his 14,000th Test run. Fourteen large!

Root is only the second man to reach that milestone after Sachin Tendulkar. It alls tarted in Nagpur in December 2012, when an even fresher-faced Root walked out to meet Kevin Pietersen for his first Test innings.

He walked out with a smile on his face, and went, 'All right lad, you okay, you're playing well there.' And I was like, 'Mate! I've played 90-odd Test matches and I don't walk out like that.' But it's brilliant for English cricket, absolutely brilliant.

5th over: England 17-2 (Duckett 5, Root 0) Two wickets in one over for Kyle Jamieson, who has already bounced back from a bad day and a bit in the first innings. At the other end, Henry beats the bat of Duckett again. When he goes full, Duckett does connect but can't time his drive. He finally finds his touch with a shovel pull that races across the dry old pitches on this enormous square.

And Root needs two to be the first Englishman to reach 14,000 runs in Tests. In fact the first man from anywhere whose name is not Sachin. That moment, if it comes, will be covered by your friend and mine, Rob Smyth. Thanks for your correspondence and I'll hope to see you for France v iraq on Monday night.

WICKET! Bethell LBW b Jamieson 0 (England 13-2)

One brings two! A full ball, swinging in, and not even England's master of the second dig can keep it out. So Bethell fails in both innings here, though he did bowl well, and poor Joe Root has to come in half an hour after a long stint changing the field.

WICKET! Gay c Ravindra b Jamieson 11 (England 13-1)

Nooo! Two bizarre things have just happened. Emilio Gay has put a low price on his wicket by clipping straight to the man at short midwicket. And that man is Rachin Ravindra, who, as Nasser Hussain says, couldn't catch a cold at Lord's.

3rd over: England 13-0 (Duckett 1, Gay 11) England could do with a stroke of some authority. And here it is from Emilio Gay, facing Henry, reading the length well and playing a force through the covers for four. Except that it's not at all forced - it's more of a glide. So that's 13 down, just another 450 to go.

2nd over: England 8-0 (Duckett 1, Gay 6) Gay, facing Kyle Jamieson, gets another nick but does well to keep it down and collects his reward with a four through the gap at third or fourth slip.

A question for Tom Latham: if you don't have a third slip on a seaming track at the Oval with 460 runs in the bank, when do you?

1st over: England 2-0 (Duckett 1, Gay 1) Matt Henry has the new ball and England are flirting with disaster! The first ball is wide outside off and ben Duckett has a tentative nibble, a nothing shot that could only have brought four off the edge. There is a nick off the last ball as Gay plays a more reasonable shot, trying to protect his off stump.

Tom Blundell is standing back for the moment, perhaps reserving the claustrophobia for Root and Brook, who both succumbed to it in the first innings. And perhaps wondering if this game will go to five days.

And here's Rob Smyth, with the facts we need at this moment. "The last time England batted even a single ball in the fourth innings of a drawn Test was at Sydney in 2021-22," he notes. "That's one of only two Tests they have drawn batting last since 2015. The other was the game v NZ in 2021 when Root was criticised for not chasing a tempting target.

"The last time they batted 120+ overs to save a Test was Auckland in 2012-13 - 143 overs, Prior hundred, Monty swimming to make his ground." Ha.

Rob also said "please don't give me a credit," but as he always dishes it out, he's just going to have to take it.

The latest email is entitled The Fisher King. Very Guardian. "Afternoon Tim, afternoon everyone," says Guy Hornsby. "This is a much improved effort from the England attack, especially Fisher after lunch. As disappointing as we've been - in parts - in this Test, what you want to see is progression, so it's been heartening to see Fisher and Baker get their lines and lengths better today, as much to ensure we don't have to overbowl Jofra, too. These may be semi-declaration wickets, but that won't matter to them. These little moments can have larger ripples, you'd hope."

Amen to that, though, if Stokes, Atkinson and Robinson return, as expected, we won't be seeing either Fisher or Baker in the next Test, unless Fisher gets the nod for his batting.

NZ 362 all out!

WICKET! Henry c Duckett b Baker 1 Another top edge, and that is that! New Zealand didn't declare but they did rather give up, as they can well afford to. England's task is daunting but straightforward: they have to get 463 to win the series, or survive for nearly five sessions to make sure they can't lose it. Maybe, for his next trick, Root will bring back the rearguard action.

WICKET! Smith c Gay b Fisher 38 (NZ 362-9)

87th over: New Zealand 362-9 (Henry 1) Fisher has another one as Smith gets his next big hit all wrong, sending a top edge up towards the Shard and seeing it land in the safe hands of Emilio Gay. That was a good knock, though: Smith, who faced 51 balls, scored faster than Henry Nicholls or Daryl Mitchell and almost as fast as Rachin Ravindra.

Meanwhile, in Chester-le-Street... Ben Stokes found himself coming in to bat with Durham 30-3, after Northants were all out for 450 (Stokes 1-80). He danced down the track as if the big night out had never happened, smashed a four, and now has 12 off 11 balls from three scoring shots. You can keep an eye on his progress with Tanya Aldred, the queen of the county scene.

86th over: New Zealand 360-8 (Smith 37, Henry 0) The role of Phillips, bossing the tail, is being taken by Nathan Smith - a less accomplished batsman but just as determined. Facing Baker, he whips a lifter for four, then swings a pull to deep square, where Jofra Archer drops a difficult catch, diving forwards. It was brave of him to try.

WICKET! Jamieson b Fisher 6 (NZ 355-8)

85th over: New Zealand 355-8 (Smith 32) England will be relieved not to see Glenn Phillips marshalling the tail, for the first time in this series. Jamieson has given them some grief too, but he struggles now against Fisher's outswing. He plays and misses once, twice, three times, four times in the over. Then he whacks a length ball back over the bowler' head, but Fisher, stung, has the perfect retort: a lovely outswinger which flattens the middle stump. In fact, shatters it!

84th over: New Zealand 351-7 (Smith 32, Jamieson 2) Root, so full of surprises as a stand-in captain, hands the new ball to Sonny Baker. He uses it to beat Smith's attempt at an expansive hook, and manages his first maiden of this innings.

83rd over: New Zealand 351-7 (Smith 32, Jamieson 2) Mitchell went down on one knee, tried to flick the ball over his left shoulder like a pinch of salt, missed it and saw his off bail go for a walk. That's the end of a fine innings and also the end of the old ball, as Joe Root has called for the new one. Kyle Jamieson, more dangerous with the bat than the ball in this game so far, gets off the mark with a swish for two.

WICKET! Mitchell b Fisher 68 (NZ 349-7)

Daryl Mitchell risks a ramp and instantly regrets it!

82nd over: New Zealand 349-6 (Mitchell 68, Smith 32) Time for the new ball, then! But hang on - it's Jacob Bethell. What the hell? The batters, possibly surprised to be still at the buffet, help themselves to four singles.

Meanwhile, on the south coast, Australia 's women have beaten the Netherlands. It's not official yet but it is inevitable, barring earthquakes or a flurry of wides. Babette de Leede has reached 50 and her team have shown that they can keep the Aussie bowlers at bay, but they now need 111 runs off two overs, which seems unlikely.

Back to the captaincy. "England dropping Stokes," says Niall Mullen, "reminds me of an absentee father erratically laying the law down having paid no attention to his kids for months on end. Sure, it feels like the right thing in the moment but, without follow through on the actual day to day issues, the kids will continue to fail to thrive and actually view the father with even less respect."

A modest proposal

"I share many of the thoughts being expressed about the ECB," says Kim Thonger. "We do seem to be in a proper pickle. Is it worth experimenting with trial replacement of the entire management team with Perplexity Max?

"It's £200 a month so obviously a clear financial case, but its ability to analyse extremely complex problems in nanoseconds and deliver holistic solutions in minutes, would surely improve matters. I pay for and use it myself for almost everything I do these days. It not perfect but it's considerably closer to perfection than the ECB.

"It didn't write this by the way, the grammar and syntax would have been better if it had."

Lunch: NZ finding it too easy

81st over: New Zealand 345-6 (Mitchell 66, Smith 30) Root keeps Fisher on, but decides not to take the new ball right away. "And the reason for that," says Stuart Broad, "would be...?"

"Dunno" says Mark Butcher. "At a loss! If you weren't going to take it, Joe Root might as well have bowled these two overs himself."

James Rew, standing up to the stumps, Blundell-style, makes a good sharp take down the leg side. But he may be alarmed to see Fisher bowl a bouncer, which Smith hooks for an effortless four. It's not the only four in town as New Zealand lead by 445. England won the first hour, bowling much better, but NZ have won the second - and they didn't even need to.

80th over: New Zealand 340-6 (Mitchell 66, Smith 25) One more over till the new ball and Nathan Smith decides to cash in, lofting Bethell for six and slog-sweeping for four. He's made three-quarter of the runs in this partnership, 25 out of 33.