New Zealand’s Mitchell and Blundell ease first Test away from England

You have to go back to 1888, the days of WG Grace and the summer when Jack the Ripper was terrorising London’s East End, for the only two-day Test match at Lord’s. This is the 139th Test at the ground since Percy McDonnell’s Australians beat England by 61 runs and for a good while it looked like a second quickfire affair was in the offing.

England’s first innings had fizzled away in the morning, albeit with just enough tail-end fiddling to turn 116 for seven into 141 all out and a lead of nine runs.

New Zealand’s top order was then once again vaporised to leave the tourists wobbling after lunch, with the demise of Devon Conway, a double centurion here last year, making it 56 for four.

Matt Potts had continued his impressive debut, knocking over Kane Williamson for the second time in the match when a back-foot punch flew to slip and nicking off his deputy, Tom Latham.

Jimmy Anderson had again winkled out Will Young in classical Anderson fashion, while Broad similarly made it a double against Conway via a strangle down leg.

But in a match where the gate in front of the old pavilion had barely stayed shut for any extended periods – two first-innings totals under 150 were registered in a Test on these shores for the first time since 1954 – England needed events to remain in fast forward to overcome their ruinous collapse of five for eight the previous evening.

Instead, a partnership of substance finally broke out, with two seasoned pros in Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell getting their heads down impressively with an unbroken fifth-wicket stand of 180 across 56.1 overs that saw the crowd thin out significantly by the close when the tourists had reached 236 for four from 79 overs.

Mitchell had handsomely played his way to 97