England v New Zealand 3rd Test Day 3: Live scores and updates from Nottingham

00:03 IST:

Black dot for the Black Caps – 2005 tri-series final between England and Australia at Lord’s. The match ended in a draw and Nasser Hussain snarled in the air – That’s almost like a win for England as Australia don’t lose the final! Yes, those were the days. When we get to the theory of relativity, let’s talk about kiwis – they don’t release catches! Especially after such a wonderful show in the previous Test. But that’s why we say in cricket – 9 times out of 10 he would take the catch. Friday was one of 10 opportunities. In the third over of the innings, Ben Duckett edged Nathan Smith straight to third slip – only to see Henry Nicholls take a shot on the bench. He was then on 8 and England on 8/1 when he lost Emilio Gaye in the previous over. Then, in the 21st over, Duckett cut again. This time off the bowling of Mitchell Santner. For some reason, Daryl Mitchell was standing wide on the first slide, in a really unconventional position. In a normal scenario, he would have swallowed it when the ball went straight there, to the conventional position, to his right. Being wide, he couldn’t even lay a finger on the ball. Duckett was on 74 at this stage, well set and dangerous – England racing at 120/1. With the way the pitch behaved, as England found out on Thursday, there are chances like Halley’s Comet – very rare. And if any chance comes and you miss it, you will have to wait another age. Also, very un-New Zealand, they just couldn’t find a way to stop the home side scoring, which is a surprise given how they suffocated the hosts at The Oval. Is Matt Henry such a big miss? None of the bowlers looked impressive and if the score went down in the last hour it was more because England pulled the curtains down at the end. Additionally, after Blair Tickner was hit by a Jofra Archer bouncer early in the morning, he suffered concussion symptoms and was ruled out of the match. New Zealand did get a concussion replacement in the form of Zakary Foulkes, but only time will tell how good that replacement will be.