England fought back magnificently to reduce New Zealand to 314 for seven in their first innings at lunch on the second day of the opening Test at Lord’s yesterday.
England of course, had made an ordinary start to the second day's play after New Zealand's overnight pair of Devon Conway and Henry Nicholls carried on where they'd left off.
Runs flowed in the first hour as Nicholls reached his fifty and Conway, his 150, early on a wicket that seemed to be pretty flat with New Zealand nearing the 300-run mark.
But in the span of eight overs, the game turned on its head with England denting New Zealand with four wickets as the visitors went to lunch on 314 for seven.
It was a brilliant spell from Wood and Robinson who picked up four wickets for six runs in that period.
They pitched it up, used the crease well with variations and bowled at high speeds, to be rewarded in proportion. The gates opened when a short ball from Wood forced Nicholls into a tangle.
He scooped it away to Robinson in the deep. B. J. Watling fell soon after playing across the line to one bowled just outside off.
Although there were two sounds, England decided to review a leg-before call against Colin de Grandhomme off Wood.
Replays showed daylight between bat and ball and three reds meant New Zealand were slipping fast, with a serious danger of undoing all the good work from the opening day as Wood had figures of three for seven in that spell.
Robinson managed to extract bounce and kept the batsmen in check. He was rewarded for his persistent spell with Mitchell Santner's wicket.
He fell for a six-ball duck chipping to mid off with England managing to isolate Conway with the flurry of wickets, who seemed to have lost a bit of momentum.
Conway, however, took New Zealand past 300 eventually and saw England off before the break unbeaten on 179.
Chief scores
New Zealand: 314/7 (Conway 179 n.o, Henry Nicholls 61, Ollie Robinson 3/62, Mark Wood 3/64) vs England. (Agencies)
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