The hosts are 65-2 in their second innings, still 246 runs away from making the Black Caps bat again.<\/p>\n
With three of New Zealand\u2019s first-choice seamers already in London to prepare to face England next week, this test can effectively be seen as a shootout between Nathan Smith, Zak Foulkes and Blair Tickner to claim the final spot in the XI to take the field at Lord\u2019s.<\/p>\n
As the leader of the new-look attack, Smith did the bulk of the damage in the first innings, claiming a career-best 6-40 with the ball. In fact, it took the 27-year-old just 29 balls to complete his five-wicket haul, and bettered Shane Bond\u2019s long-standing record of 39 as the fastest by a New Zealander. <\/p>\n
Having spent the entirety of his test career as a change bowler, taking the new ball proved Smith with the platform he needed, as Ireland\u2019s top order had no answer to his swing through the air, and seam off the pitch.<\/p>\n
Nathan Smith appeals against Ireland. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n
He was complemented by Blair Tickner (1-40 & 2-14), who did the dirty work with the old ball in the first innings, before landing two late strikes to end the day\u2019s play. <\/p>\n
Now, with two days left to play, Ireland will need to produce one of the great backs-to-the-wall displays if they\u2019re to avoid a result other than a crushing loss.<\/p>\n
Resuming at 361-5<\/a>, New Zealand\u2019s overnight pair carried on into day two, as Blundell passed 150 for the first time in test cricket, and recorded his highest score in professional cricket not long after. <\/p>\n At the other end, Foxcroft moved to a debut half-century, taking just 73 deliveries, but with only three boundaries as a sign of how well he ran between the wickets. The duo added their century stand in 171 balls, which became 150 in 217, as Blundell and Foxcroft took the attack to an already deflated Ireland side after drinks.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n But with milestones in their sights, both fell. Approaching 200, Blundell holed out to deep midwicket to give debutant Reuben Wilson a first test wicket, and broke the partnership with Foxcroft for 158.<\/p>\n With Glenn Phillips\u2019 return from the Indian Premier League<\/a> likely to see Foxcroft relegated from the test XI, the debutant more than took his chance to impress, but fell two short of becoming the 13th New Zealander to reach 100 on test debut, and perished to a top-edged sweep when he was caught at short fine-leg. <\/p>\n The declaration left Ireland needing 341 to avoid the follow-on, with the mark shortened from 200 to 150 due to the four-day contest. Smith struck twice in his first over, having both Stephen Doheny LBW, and Cade Carmichael caught at second slip by Latham without scoring to leave the hosts 0-2.<\/p>\n While Ireland reached lunch without further loss, Smith continued in the afternoon. Captain Andrew Balbirnie (13) missed a ball that nipped back to hit middle stump at 26-3, before he had his fourth one ball later when Curtis Campher was trapped LBW for a golden duck.<\/p>\n Smith missed a hat-trick, but nipping one back through the gate of Lorcan Tucker for a duck gave him a five-wicket haul before he\u2019d completed five overs. <\/p>\n Having watched five wickets fall at the other end, Zak Foulkes (1-32) joined the party with an inswinger that rocked Harry Tector\u2019s front pad for 16, and left Ireland 38-6 before the Black Caps had even made a bowling change.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n Despite rescuing Ireland and frustrating the Black Caps, a counter-attacking stand of 116 between Andy McBrine and Mark Adair only delayed the inevitable. <\/p>\n Smith\u2019s return brought the end of Adair when he was bounced out and caught by Blundell for 40, before Ben Sears (2-27) and Tickner (1-40) wrapped up Ireland\u2019s tail, and left McBrine stranded with an unbeaten 73, as Latham had no hesitation in enforcing the follow-on.<\/p>\n With invariable bounce starting to show, Tickner struck twice more – having Balbirnie caught behind for 14 and Carmichael caught at second slip by Latham for six – as the Black Caps left the field with 12 of the 20 Irish wickets needed for victory.<\/p>\n New Zealand 490-8 declared (Blundell 186, Ravindra 121, Foxcroft 98; Adair 3-66)<\/p>\n Ireland 179 (McBrine 73 not out; Smith 6-40) & 65-2 (Doheny 36 not out; Tickner 2-14)<\/p>\n Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a>Save<\/a>Share this articleCopy LinkEmailFacebookTwitter\/XLinkedInReddit<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"All the action from day three of the one-off test between the Black Caps and Ireland, from Stormont.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[432,5432,7022,42574,5972,71,10937,8019,4960,117,111,43,139,69,90,94416,228872,765,1529,7245,8982,80],"class_list":["post-450983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-action","tag-between","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-day","tag-from","tag-hunt","tag-ireland","tag-live","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-oneoff","tag-stormont","tag-test","tag-three","tag-updates","tag-victory","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=450983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/450983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=450983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=450983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=450983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Dean Foxcroft departs after being dismissed for 98 on test debut. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n