Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

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Ben Stokes batting at seven? If you start looking to the future, if he does start scoring runs down there, maybe we going to see him at seven and Jamie Smith, when he comes back, bats at six.

There’s always little side trails and things you can go down and things can evolve very quickly.

Benfides: Last night I went to sleep in despair after Root's wicket, fully expecting England to be skittled for under 100. Fast forward 24 hours and what a beautiful watch this is. Nice to see some resilience shown and now enjoying the rewards.

Will O'Rourke gets a little excited after Ben Stokes plays at one which cuts him in two.

There's a noise, but it's very much brushed the England captain's thigh on its way through leaving the Kiwi seamer looking a little sheepish.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

Image source, Getty Images

New Zealand seem to be targeting Gus Atkinson with slightly shorter deliveries today - he showed his prowess taking on the short ball during his century at Lord's, hitting 31 off 14 with the pull shot during that innings.

Will O'Rourke has that tunnel vision look as he runs in and bowls. He's honing in on a specific area to Gus Atkinson, but the England batter has an answer for everything so far.

Atkinson's technique is very uncomplicated. If its in his zone, it gets the full treatment.

O'Rourke offers Atkinson some width and thumps it through the covers for four.

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Andy Zaltzman
Test Match Special statistician

Ben Stokes' 105-ball 50 was the eighth slowest (in terms of balls to reach 50) of the 114 50s in the Bazball era. Stokes now has three of the 10 Bazball 50s that have taken 100+ balls (Root has four, Foakes two, Lees one). Stokes also has a 99-ball 50, so 4 of the slowest 11.

If Gus Atkinson continues playing shots like this, he will be, Nick.

Short again Nathan Smith and Gus Atkinson swivels on his heels, gets over the top of the ball, and confidently pulls it to the fence for four.

Lovely.

Always helpful when you can get your mum to text in under a different name, eh?

Anyway, Gus Atkinson has nearly knocked Tim Southee's block off with a powerful drive through the covers off Nathan Smith which races away for four.

Gus Atkinson has looked solid so far. He

is given short ball by Matt Henry and quickly latches on to the length, elegantly pulling it for four through deep square.

That brings up 400 for England A lead of 53.

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Paul Thompson: England need to be careful they don’t fritter away the chance of a good first-innings lead here. Still a great batting pitch and a 100-run lead is not unreachable.

Kieran Parmley
Cricviz analyst

Matt Henry has bowled 155 deliveries to Ben Stokes in Test cricket without dismissing him - no bowler has bowled so frequently at Stokes without taking his wicket.

Ouch, Kev. We're all friends here.

I'm a huge fan of Chris Woakes for what it's worth. Just stated facts, really.

He'll have a part to play with the ball in the second innings given the movement through the air which was absent on day one.

Gus Atkinson is the new batter, happily defending against Matt Henry at the moment.

You suspect England will want to get this lead up to near 100 runs, or so.

Sir Alastair Cook
Ex-England captain on TNT Sports

England have got an opportunity here to win the Test match batting in the first innings. If Ben Stokes goes and gets 100, you don’t lose many games of cricket with that kind of lead after the first innings. New Zealand, for their sloppiness, are still in this game. They are without a doubt still in this game.

Day four used to be moving day, but it’s slipped a bit earlier to day three. I think we’ve got a five-day Test match and I think it is going to go to the wire. England need to bat New Zealand out of this game.