Eng 10-0published at 1 over

1 over

Well, if Zak Crawley is nervous, he's determined not to show it.

He makes it consecutive twos with an off drive that does go in the right direction, then attempts to set off for a quick single into the covers but is sent back by Duckett.

The Kent batter goes on to close the over with a lofted six over long-off.

Clearing the ropes in the opening over - a bold start!

Here we go then... oh, maybe not.

Zak Crawley steps away with Southee approaching the crease, gesturing that there's movement behind the bowler's arm.

A woman in a flowery dress seems a little lost in the stand - she's ushered behind a barrier and we're good to start.

Crawley goes for an expansive drive first up, with the ball taking a thick inside edge and squirting away square for two runs.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

Zak Crawley is under pressure. Ben Stokes defended him this week but it just adds more headlines to it.

He struggles because the New Zealand bowlers can bowl full to him and then move the ball away.

It doesn't match up well against somebody who goes hard at the ball.

Image source, Getty Images

We've had the anthems in Wellington, followed by, as with the last Test, by Bittersweet Symphony by The Verve.

It's a banger, to be fair.

England openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley are walking out to the middle, with the latter set to face Tim Southee.

Let's get going.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

Interesting comments from both captains at the toss - day one has the highest batting average for any day across the past five Test matches at Wellington, backing up Stokes' bat first thinking.

Batting average by day - past five Tests at Wellington

Day 1 - 45.21

Day 2 - 31.29

Day 3 - 34.00

Day 4 - 22.47

Day 5 - 20.42

Image source, Getty Images

This Test has a lot to live up to.

When England last came to Wellington, in February 2023, they featured in one of the all-time great finishes to a Test match.

Seamer Neil Wagner dismissed James Anderson to see his side home by the finest of margins as they took the match by a single run.

Wagner, who, like Anderson, has now retired from international cricket, has been speaking to PA News Agency about that match in the build-up to this Test.

"It was an unbelievably special day. A hell of an end to a hell of a Test match.

"You always want to be the one in the middle, putting your hand up to create moments like that, and I was incredibly happy to be the one with the ball in my hand. The worst place to be is standing in the field where you can't control things.

"Tim Southee bowled a maiden at the other end and I knew it was do it now or lose the game. I felt under pressure standing at the top of my mark. To get him was the best feeling ever, 100 per cent. It was quite amazing."

It could have so easily gone the other way - Anderson hit Wagner for four earlier in the over, while a delivery that followed came close to being given as a wide that would have tied the scores.

"It was really close to a wide, the closest of calls," Wagner said.

"I guess you could say I got on the lucky side of that one, but looking over the whole Test they were consistent with their calls and it wasn't much different a few others that went down.

"But I knew the next one had to be lower or they would definitely call wide, I had to bring the catchers into play and luckily it went to the safest hands on the field, Tom Blundell."

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Chief Cricket Commentator

New Zealand will have shut the door, the coach Gary Stead will have said that was a seriously bad day at the office and we're going to move on to Wellington and put that behind us and play better.

Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport chief cricket reporter in Wellington

The Basin Reserve really is dripping in history. It's like the Lord's of New Zealand. This is where New Zealand beat England for the first time and where Brendon McCullum made the Kiwis' first triple-century. There was a decent game here 18 months ago, too.

Tom Latham makes it 17 successive Tests that captain winning the toss on this ground has chosen to bowl first. Ben Stokes saying he would have batted surprises me but, in reality, England have a frontline spinner and New Zealand don't - this suits both teams.

England were 21-3 here in the Wonder of Wellington, a detail overlooked because of everything that came afterwards.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Chief Cricket Commentator

I'm intrigued by New Zealand - all the build-up to the first Test was about their victory in India and that they were favourites, but they had a shocker. They have all the problems - they dropped catches and Tim Southee looked like a man in his final series.

Ian Westbrook
BBC Journalist in Wellington

It's a sunny morning in Wellington. A relaxed atmosphere around the ground and plenty of England fans here.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

Tom Blundell is one of the New Zealand players struggling. He made an outstanding start to his career but in his past 13 Tests he is averaging just 15. Devon Conway is only averaging 23 too.

Those are the two areas that New Zealand may have made changes to get the in-form Will Young back into the side.

It would have meant Tom Latham taking the gloves though, and opening, keeping and captaining is probably a bridge too far for anyone.

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Chief Cricket Commentator

Image source, Getty Images

Zak Crawley is up against quality swing and seam bowlers, who pitch it up in the area where he fancies scoring. The gamble he takes is that the ball won't move much and he won't nick it. With this attack and those bowlers New Zealand have had in the last four or five years, they have had the better of him.

England captain Ben Stokes has backed opener Zak Crawley to improve his dismal record against New Zealand in the second Test in Wellington.

Crawley made nought and one in the eight-wicket victory in the first Test, taking his average against the Black Caps down to 9.88.

The 26-year-old missed the last three Tests of the summer with a broken finger but in the year prior averaged almost 44 against allcomers.

"Some guys have bogey teams, some guys have teams they do really well against," Stokes told BBC Sport.

"We're one Test match into a series against New Zealand, but over the past 18 months Zak has been absolutely phenomenal for us."

Read more on that here.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

Ben Stokes saying he was going to bat first has taken me by surprise, I thought it was a fairly obvious bowl first day. I hope he was telling the truth, I'm sure he was!

Both sides are unchanged for this Wellington encounter, with New Zealand continuing without spinning all-rounder Mitchell Santner.

Here's how they line-up.

New Zealand: Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir

England captain Ben Stokes: "We were going to have a bat actually so it has worked out well.

"I was very happy with how we went about the game last week. It was a real team effort where everybody stood up at some point. When everybody is contributing at different parts you know you've had a good team performance."

On the last Test in Wellington in 2022: "It was stressful watching it unfold in the changing room. It was quite hard to be disappointed despite being on the wrong side of the result. It was pretty cool to say we were part of a Test that was separated by one run."

New Zealand captain Tom Latham: "It is a traditional wicket here and hopefully we can make good use of it first up.

"We understand it is not a given when you win the toss. It is always an important first two hours and session here.

"You are always looking to improve. The guys have worked hard in the past couple of days and I don't think we were that far away, we played some good stuff in that first Test.

"There was a little bit ot turn last year but from the information we've had potentially not this year."

Time for the toss in sunny Wellington.

Having lost last week's toss in Christchurch, New Zealand's Tom Latham wins on this occasion.

For the second Test in a row, the winning captain puts his opponent in - England are going to have a bat.

For those who weren't paying attention, England opened the tour with a win in the first Test in Christchurch last week.

Having dismissed New Zealand for 348, England racked up 499 in reply, with Harry Brook taking advantage of some slack fielding to score 171.

Seamer Brydon Carse then took a maiden Test five-fer in the hosts' second innings as they were bowled out for 254, leaving England needing 103 for victory.

They chased their target down for the loss of just two wickets, with number three Jacob Bethell making an unbeaten half century on Test debut.

It put the visitors one up in the three-match series, with England hoping to wrap up the series in Wellington prior to the final match in Hamilton next week.