Join now and get your first month for just $1 ><\/a><\/p>\nThey suffered a woeful start to their run-chase on Friday when captain Tom Latham fell for a third-ball duck, edging a loose drive off Atkinson to Harry Brook in the slips.<\/p>\n
Kane Williamson, in what could be the key batsman\u2019s final appearance at Lord\u2019s, battled hard for 18 before he was lbw to fast bowler Josh Tongue shortly before the close.<\/p>\n
New Zealand sent out a nightwatchman in Will O\u2019Rourke but he was bowled for a duck by paceman Atkinson, who had close figures of 2-10 in 3.5 overs.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Jamie Smith helped England recover from a middle-order collapse before the hosts were dismissed for 226 in their second innings of a frenetic clash in north London.<\/p>\n
Gay was England\u2019s top scorer in their second innings with 57 and wicketkeeper Smith made 39 in the 150th Test staged at Lord\u2019s \u2014 the most of any ground.<\/p>\n
New Zealand quick Nathan Smith took 6-70.<\/p>\n
But given New Zealand were dismissed for just 113 in the first innings, they need a vastly-improved batting effort to prevent England going 1-0 up in the three-match series.<\/p>\n
\u201cA tough day, the pitch had its demands,\u201d Gay told the BBC.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the beauty of Test cricket, the challenges it brings.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important thing was trying to embrace it and see it as an opportunity. When it\u2019s a low-scoring game, partnerships of 20 and little bits of momentum there are massive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nathan Smith, meanwhile, said: \u201cThe game has moved pretty quickly in the first couple of days. We lost one too many wickets tonight but the wicket (pitch) is offering a lot for the seamers.\u201d<\/p>\n
England lost four wickets for just one run as 126-2 became 127-6 before Jamie Smith steadied the ship during a seventh-wicket partnership of 57 with Atkinson.<\/p>\n
Atkinson, however, gave his innings away on 14 when a miscued pull off Kyle Jamieson was caught by the towering fast bowler.<\/p>\n
This is England\u2019s first Test since a 4-1 series loss in Australia where they squandered several promising positions.<\/p>\n
It appeared that they might be suffering a repeat of their Ashes debacle when Brook, fresh from a first-innings fifty, and England captain Ben Stokes were both dismissed without scoring on Friday.<\/p>\n
There was little Jamie Smith could do when Nathan Smith bowled him with a delivery that kept low.<\/p>\n
Will O\u2019Rourke of New Zealand. Photo by Gareth Copley\/Getty ImagesSource: Getty Images<\/p>\n
Gay, who survived a Henry lbw appeal when the Durham batsman would have been out for 24, pressed on to an 84-ball fifty, including seven fours, before he was caught behind off Smith to leave England 126-3.<\/p>\n
Brook was trapped in front by O\u2019Rourke for a duck and Joe Root fell in similar fashion to Smith for eight.<\/p>\n
Stokes was bowled by an excellent Smith delivery that clipped the top of the left-hander\u2019s off stump.<\/p>\n
Ollie Robinson made a useful 29 before he was last man out.<\/p>\n
The Sussex pace bowler had previously marked his return to England duty with a five-wicket haul.<\/p>\n
Robinson, in his first Test in over two years, produced a triple-wicket maiden on Thursday during a sensational 4-10 in six overs as New Zealand slumped to 6-61 at stumps.<\/p>\n
And on Friday, he bowled last man Matt Henry for a duck to finish with his Test-best figures of 5-39 in 10.1 overs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gus Atkinson struck twice late on the second day as England pressed for victory in the first Test…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":717982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-717981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=717981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/717981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=717981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=717981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=717981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n