England rocked early at 54-3 as daunting chase begins at The Oval
England was 54-3 against New Zealand in an unlikely fourth-innings chase of 463 at tea on day four of The Oval test on Saturday.
New Zealand was bowled out for 362, England scooping up the last four wickets in 6.1 overs after lunch.
That set England 463 to win the test and clinch the series with a match to spare; a total far above the world record chase of 418 by West Indies against Australia at St. John’s in 2003 and way above England’s best chase of 378 against India in Birmingham in 2022.
The alternative was to bat out four-plus sessions for a draw. Neither scenario looked likely as New Zealand’s pace attack made immediate inroads under cloud cover.
Kyle Jamieson removed Emilio Gay and his replacement, Jacob Bethell, in the fourth over.
Gay on 11 flicked straight to midwicket into the hands of Rachin Ravindra, who was mobbed by his teammates after dropping three sitters in the series, including one in the first innings. Bethell went for a four-ball duck when he missed Jamieson and was plumb on the front pad.
Ben Duckett survived an umpire’s call on a Jamieson delivery that would have clipped leg stump, but he added only four more runs when he was out to a poor shot on 9 just 15 minutes before tea. Duckett toe-ended a pull at Will O’Rourke straight to Matt Henry at mid-on.
Captain Joe Root was on 24 with vice-captain Harry Brook on 9 at the break.
Root was almost gone before he scored when an edge off Jamieson fell just short of second slip. His second run brought up his 14,000th in tests, only the second man to the milestone after Sachin Tendulkar. Jamieson had 2-10 from five overs and O’Rourke had 1-16.
Earlier New Zealand lost three wickets before the clouds parted but was 345-6 at lunch. With Mitchell was Nathan Smith on 30 off 35 balls.
Their intimidating second innings lead was already far above what England has ever chased successfully in a fourth innings, 378. The Black Caps added 93 runs in 25 overs against bowling that was finding some nip with a ball 60 overs old, especially from Jofra Archer and Josh Tongue, England’s most experienced quicks.
