Tea England 280 and 215 for 3 (Root 10*, Brook 3*) lead New Zealand 125 (Atkinson 4-31, Carse 4-46) by 370 runs
Bethell’s 96, his highest score in any professional innings, demonstrated the range of his talent but he was unable to convert, Tim Southee finding his outside edge as he lined up an expansive drive. In the same over, he had survived a skied pull that landed in no-man’s land, before nearly dragging on next ball.
By that stage, New Zealand were already facing a record fourth-innings chase, with England’s lead beyond 350. Bethell had outscored his partner but Duckett was typically busy, although he might have been dismissed on 22 had Tom Blundell managed to hold a thin edge down the leg side off Nathan Smith.
A fifth Test hundred was beckoning for the opener only for Southee to pick another when Duckett’s angled-bat dab only succeeded in diverting the ball down on to his stumps with tea approaching.
Tom Latham cycled through his bowling options but only Will O’Rourke, who pushed the speed gun up to 145kph/90mph, looked likely burst England’s batting bubble as the Basin Reserve pitch finally went to sleep after an action-packed first four sessions.
Bethell was not afraid to chance his arm, slashing Smith between keeper and slip after lunch on the way to a 52-ball half-century, his second in four outings as England’s No. 3. Duckett wasn’t far behind him, reaching fifty from 58 balls, as England cruised along at 5 an over.
During the morning, Atkinson had become the first bowler in history to take a Test hat-trick at Basin Reserve, before Duckett and Bethell twisted the knife with a rapid stand.
Six wickets fell in the first hour, taking the total to 21 in three-and-a-half sessions, but England’s second-wicket pairing buckled their swash to good effect. Boundaries flowed, particularly from the bat of Bethell, as they quickly cemented England’s position of control after the loss of Zak Crawley in the second over of the innings.
Crawley thumped Southee’s first two balls through the covers, sounding the bugle on an expected England charge after they had secured a 155-run lead, but was then dismissed by Matt Henry’s second ball, clipped firmly but straight to midwicket. It took his brutal series record against Henry to 19 balls faced, zero runs scored, four times out.
Bethell struck Henry for a brace of boundaries to get going, then pulled Smith’s second delivery for six. Duckett did the same to Henry as England reached 50 in the ninth over – although the single that raised the mark went down as a dropped catch as Blundell couldn’t cling on.
Bethell then steered low through the cordon before heaving Smith into the crowd again, and Southee was greeted back into the attack with another brace of boundaries as England reached lunch in commanding shape.
New Zealand resumed their innings with Blundell batting alongside nightwatcher O’Rourke. Blundell shaped up nicely for all of 12 balls, pulling Carse for the first boundary of the day – but was extracted by the 13th he had faced, Carse producing a beauty to hit the top of off. He had his fourth two balls later when O’Rourke propped forward hopefully and was tapped plumb in front of middle.
Smith briefly suggested that their might be a counterattack from the New Zealand lower order, timing Carse down the ground to bring up three figures before following up with a full-blooded mow over midwicket for six.
Glenn Phillips added three quickfire boundaries and Smith then drilled Atkinson through the covers as the stand reached 29 at more than a run a ball. But Atkinson found extra bounce on a tight line to defeat Smith, who underedged on to his stumps attempting to leave.
The end of the innings was swift, as Atkinson had Henry fending a chest-high bumper to gully and then bluffed Southee by pushing the field back then going full and straight at the stumps. Southee reviewed with a forlorn glance, ball-tracking confirming it would have hit middle and leg – and Atkinson walked off as the first Englishman to take a Test hat-trick since Moeen Ali at The Oval in 2017.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick