Tom Latham, Devon Conway fifties as New Zealand fight in follow on

Tea New Zealand 209 (Southee 73, Broad 4-61) and 128 for 0 (Latham 72*, Conway 53*) trail England 435 for 8 dec by 98 runs

Both players passed fifty, with Latham the more fluent of the two. New Zealand’s vice-captain was typically strong square of the wicket and picked off regular boundaries, although he might have been dismissed on 62 had Jack Leach managed to close his fingers around a sharp caught-and-bowled chance.

Conway had needed to dig in at the start of his innings, with Ollie Robinson troubling him around off stump and short leg interested whenever he closed the face. Leach did find his inside edge, the ball evading Ben Stokes at leg slip, but he battled through to lunch and began to find his range thereafter, driving Stuart Broad for fours either side of mid-off in the same over.

Leach was lofted down the ground for six, before the returning James Anderson had Conway fencing an outside edge, only for the ball to dip beneath the fingertips of Zak Crawley at second slip.

Latham was the first to fifty, having earlier become the seventh New Zealander to 5000 runs in Tests, and he began to play more expansively as the home side cut the deficit to double-figures. Conway reached his half-century an over later, as the pair took the score on by 88 without loss in the middle session, having seen off a testing passage against the new ball before lunch.

England’s bowlers had taken some punishment, mainly from Southee, on the way to knocking over the final three New Zealand wickets and enforcing the follow on midway through the morning session.

New Zealand’s first innings had an anaemic look at 138 for 7 at the close on day two, but they still had a chance of taking the decision out of England’s hands with Southee resuming alongside Tom Blundell. Southee duly showcased his six-hitter’s eye on the way to a bruising 73 off 49 balls – four runs short of equalling his Test best score, made against England on debut in 2008 – before Stuart Broad finished the innings with 3 for 5 in the space of 12 balls.

With a lead of 226, Ben Stokes was able to ask New Zealand to bat again. Overcast conditions in Wellington hinted at continued assistance for the seamers, and the potential for the pitch to continue to improve for batting encouraged England to have another crack.

The best route out of trouble, in Southee’s view, was to give free rein to his natural instincts. After Blundell had edged just short of slip in Ollie Robinson’s first over of the morning, Southee charged at his second ball from Jack Leach and just about got away with a toe-ended slog that cleared Stokes running back from mid-on.

Another full-blooded mow down the ground brought four more in the same over, before Robinson was slapped through the covers. Leach then felt the full force of Southee’s world-class ability to hit sixes, three times going the journey in a single over as New Zealand’s No. 9 raced to a 39-ball half-century.

Blundell still had designs on averting the prospect of the follow-on, but miscued an advance in Broad’s next over to be held by Leach at mid-on. Henry then spliced a catch to backward point to give Stokes the option, which he duly took.