{"id":482375,"date":"2026-06-17T19:57:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482375\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T19:57:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T19:57:08","slug":"black-caps-v-england-tom-blundell-glenn-phillips-lead-the-way-on-tough-batting-day-for-new-zealand-at-the-oval","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/482375\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Caps v England: Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips lead the way on tough batting day for New Zealand at The Oval"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillips didn\u2019t just contribute with the bat, either. England wicketkeeper James Rew claimed to have caught Blundell down the leg side, only for replays to show the debutant grounded the ball. Blundell, on 34 at the time, was prepared to take the keeper\u2019s word, before Phillips convinced him to stand his ground and wait for the umpires to check the catch.<\/p>\n

England\u2019s decision to give Rew the gloves should come under the microscope, considering another debutant \u2013 Jordan Cox \u2013 can keep wicket, and is playing as a specialist batter at No 7, as one of five changes <\/a>to the side that won at Lord\u2019s last week. Even with 13 overs unable to be bowled, Rew still conceded 44 extras on his opening day as a test gloveman.<\/p>\n

The Black Caps\u2019 batters, meanwhile, didn\u2019t make the most of their starts on day one. While conditions were tricky for batting early on, four of New Zealand\u2019s top five made scores between 20 and 44, before they were dismissed, and will be disappointed to have not kicked on. <\/p>\n

\"TomTom Blundell bats against England on day one of the second test at The Oval. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

And with the surface expected to get better to bat on, the Kiwi seam attack could have their work cut out for them trying to prise out wickets over the coming days.<\/p>\n

Bowling first on a green-looking pitch, England\u2019s attack initially justified interim captain Joe Root\u2019s decision to send New Zealand in under grey skies. <\/p>\n

Having returned to England after a dash home to welcome his second child<\/a>, Devon Conway (9) perished attempting to pull the returning Matt Fisher (1-45), only to be strangled down leg to give Rew his first test catch. <\/p>\n

Tom Latham (27) and Henry Nicholls (24) both made promising starts, but couldn\u2019t cash in after doing the hard work in the morning session, as the Black Caps were reduced to 79-3 shortly into the afternoon. Rachin Ravindra was elegant in his 33 from 51 balls, including a glorious straight drive to raise New Zealand\u2019s 100, but gave debutant Sonny Baker (2-63) his first test wicket, by steering a short ball straight to Jacob Bethell at gully.<\/p>\n

At 107-4, and with batting conditions improving as the sun came out, Mitchell and Blundell picked up where they left off four years ago \u2013 when they averaged 122.2 as a partnership<\/a> \u2013 and needed just 57 deliveries to post a 50-run stand.<\/p>\n

Mitchell was dropped on two by Cox at leg slip, and kept his composure to keep the bowlers out, and passed the mark of 1000 test runs against England in the process. At the other end, Blundell was by far the more positive of the two, and struck at close to 100, including a flawless cover drive off Baker, to steer the visitors to 166-4 at tea.<\/p>\n

Into the final session and approaching a half-century, Mitchell perished to a mistimed pull shot that gave Baker his second, as Phillips joined Blundell at 188-5. A flurry of Phillips boundaries took the score beyond 200, and dominated the scoring as he and Blundell raised their 50-partnership in only 52 balls.<\/p>\n

\"GlennGlenn Phillips celebrates Tom Blundell’s half-century on day one of the second test between the Black Caps and England. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

In the final hour, Blundell reached his half-century with a pull to fine leg off Bethell (2-8), getting to his milestone from 82 deliveries, with six boundaries, only to fall two balls later when he attempted to clear midwicket.<\/p>\n

At this point batting in sunglasses, and without having scored a run in more than 30 minutes thanks to a short-ball barrage from Jofra Archer (1-58), Phillips saw out the rest of the day, but lost Nathan Smith (4) to a top-edged sweep off Bethell.<\/p>\n

New Zealand 291-7 (Blundell 51, Phillips 49 not out; Bethell 2-8)<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillips didn\u2019t just contribute with the bat, either. England wicketkeeper James Rew claimed to have caught Blundell down…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1975,116173,7022,119416,42574,5972,1634,8985,1888,2082,21934,7240,117,111,139,69,90,1532,10936,242319,17093,213,242320,223,5134,13983,14047,72725,80,2963],"class_list":["post-482375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-at","tag-batting","tag-black","tag-blundell","tag-caps","tag-day","tag-england","tag-era","tag-first","tag-for","tag-glenn","tag-lead","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-oval","tag-phillips","tag-postkane","tag-ship","tag-sports","tag-steadied","tag-the","tag-tom","tag-tough","tag-way","tag-williamson","tag-zealand","tag-zealands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482375","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=482375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}