{"id":661827,"date":"2026-06-27T22:47:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:47:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/661827\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T22:47:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T22:47:16","slug":"supersub-foulkes-key-to-new-zealands-day-three-turnaround-against-england-england-v-new-zealand-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/661827\/","title":{"rendered":"Supersub Foulkes key to New Zealand\u2019s day three turnaround against England | England v New Zealand 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zak Foulkes said that before play on Saturday New Zealand decided to attempt a new method of outfoxing England\u2019s batters: by staying \u201cas boring as possible\u201d. If the process was deliberately dull, the results were electrifying. Having started their first innings on Friday<\/a> by scoring 223 at 4.96 an over for the loss of just two wickets, the next day England completed it by scoring 131 at 3.02 an over, while losing eight. For the English it was, as Shoaib Bashir put it, \u201cquite disappointing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just tried to stay as boring as possible really and try to dry out the runs,\u201d said Foulkes. \u201cYesterday they got off to a fast start and we had to peg it back and peg it back, and we knew if we could dry it up, things could happen in our favour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foulkes, who became New Zealand\u2019s first ever concussion substitute in Test cricket when he replaced Blair Tickner on Friday, was key to the turnaround, taking three wickets including those of Harry Brook and Ben Stokes, both bowled by devilish deliveries which the bowler himself admitted owed a fair amount to luck. \u201cI\u2019m going to say they hit cracks, which is a good sign with us bowling last,\u201d he said. \u201cWe just had to pry away on that top of off and hopefully the odd one would do something and we\u2019d get our reward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think them doing that much is my doing really. I\u2019m more of a swing bowler and there\u2019s not a lot of swing out there, so I\u2019ve bowled a lot of three-quarter balls. They just happened to move quite a bit \u2013 and I think there\u2019s going to be quite a bit more of that during the next couple of days.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite losing both openers early, New Zealand reached stumps on 120 for three, for a lead of 204 on a pitch that beyond the seam-assisting cracks is also starting to offer considerable assistance to spin, setting England up for a difficult task chasing a high total on a deteriorating surface. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t put a number on it, especially with this side. We\u2019ve got unbelievable cricketers in this team,\u201d said Bashir of the limits of the team\u2019s target-chasing potential.<\/p>\n

Zak Foulkes took three wickets on day three at Trent Bridge.
Photograph: MI News\/NurPhoto\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Foulkes was thrown into the fray on Friday after a Jofra Archer bouncer hit Tickner on the helmet late in New Zealand\u2019s first innings. Tickner continued for a while, bowling three overs towards the start of England\u2019s reply, before leaving the field complaining of dizziness.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to The Spin<\/p>\n

Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers’ thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week\u2019s action<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a very strange process,\u201d Foulkes said. \u201cAs 12th man you still do your training in the morning, so I got through about seven overs at 8am, and then I was in the gym when we lost our last couple of wickets. It was a niggly one trying to switch on to actually be a part of the game. The process takes a while \u2013 the doctor has to do his tests and make sure there\u2019s concussion and stuff like that, and then there\u2019s paperwork to be done. So I went on the field, had to come off the field, Tom [Latham, the New Zealand captain] had to sign a few papers and then yeah, I was in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Zak Foulkes said that before play on Saturday New Zealand decided to attempt a new method of outfoxing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-661827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}