Chelmsford: day three

Essex (258 and 45-1) need 248 more runs to beat the New Zealanders (355 and 195)

Lunch

The New Zealanders continued to struggle in their tour match against Essex despite taking a first-innings lead of almost 100 runs. Kyle Mills got Maurice Chambers to edge to slip to end the home side’s innings, which had only two notable scores in 66 for Ravi Bopara and 41 for Alex Tudor, but New Zealand’s second innings stuttered.

Jamie How made nine for the second innings in a row before getting an edge behind off Tony Palladino and James Marshall, the first-innings centurion, was caught in the gully off Tudor for 12. Marshall had been asked to open after Aaron Redmond was told he could not bat until five wickets had fallen as a result of missing most of Staurday’s fielding having injured himself warming up.

This led to a farcical situation as Redmond, misunderstanding the umpires’ request, came out to bat at the fall of the fourth wicket and had to be sent back to the pavilion. Earlier, Ross Taylor was the third man out, playing on to give Chambers his second first-class wicket and his first for three years, and Brendon McCullum, after making 35 off 29 balls, edged Bopara’s second ball to slip.

Tea

A crucial seventh-wicket stand of 51 between Kyle Mills and Aaron Redmond may yet save the New Zealanders at Chelmsford after Essex took two more wickets after lunch to move into a strong position. Daniel Flynn was caught at gully by James Middlebrook, cutting at a ball from Maurice Chambers that rose higher than he expected, then Jacob Oram was caught off Ravi Bopara by Tony Palladino, leaping high to his right, for 19.

At that stage, New Zealand were 92 for six and effectively 189 for seven, taking into account their first-innings lead and the fact that the injured Daniel Vettori will not bat. Yet Redmond, batting down the order, and Mills batted sensibly to turn the game back towards the touring side. Their half-century stand came in 21 overs, which was hardly riveting stuff but it was what the occasion demanded.

Mills did hit one ball from Middlebrook out of the ground for the first six of the innings but generally he gained his runs with singles and twos rather than slogs. With a first-class average of 29 he is too good to be batting at No 9, yet neither batsmen was tested too much by some gentle Essex bowling.

Close

A thrilling final day's play awaits anyone who visits Chelmsford on Bank Holiday Monday and not even the dismissal of Jason Gallian, edging to slip in the final over, could prevent Essex from feeling hopeful of gaining a significant scalp. New Zealand batted poorly throughout the day and, as in the first innings, they had to rely on runs from the tail to help them towards a respectable total.

Kyle Mills made 53 not out and put on partnerships of 58, 26 and 19 for the last three wickets with Aaron Redmond, Michael Mason and Iain O'Brien but it was a source of frustration, not least to their watching captain, that New Zealand failed to pass 200. Daniel Vettori was unable to bat because of his gashed spinning finger, cut taking a throw awkwardly on Saturday, and will miss the final warm-up game next week

Alex Tudor and Maurice Chambers took the final two wickets but it was the dismissal of Redmond that mattered most. The opening batsman, who had been forced to come in at No 7 after an injury, had patiently moved on to 30 when he shouldered arms to a ball from Tony Palladino that moved in enough to clip the outside of his off stump. On such small things could this game turn.

Alastair Cook and Gallian had 13 overs to negotiate and Cook was almost out without scoring, Ross Taylor dropping a regulation catch at slip, but they had moved on to 45 before Gallian played the same mis-stroke. This time Taylor did not err.

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