Robinson strikes twice but rain halts England’s charge against New Zealand

Just 58 legal deliveries – plus one no ball – were bowled as rain dominated the third day here. It was an unsatisfyingly brief glimpse of action that nevertheless allowed England to upgrade their chances of victory in the first Test after their post-Ashes reset from probable to overwhelmingly likely.

New Zealand scored 19 runs and lost two wickets, leaving them on 55 for five and still 199 from victory. The rate at which they scored illustrated the continuing difficulty of the batters’ task on this capricious surface and also a determination simply to survive until Sunday, with its promise of better weather and upgraded batting conditions.

As the New Zealand bowler Nathan Smith put it on Friday: “It felt chalk and cheese bowling when the clouds rolled in [compared] to when the sun was out. It felt like the ball nipped quicker, nipped more when the cloud was in. It was a case of the pitch being a little easier to bat on.”

Hence their apparent decision that the proverbial sun was more likely to shine on their efforts if the literal sun was also shining on them. The issue was that in the meantime, with clouds overhead and floodlights on, the chances of any batter surviving long enough to enjoy such conditions were not very encouraging, not to mention that Sunday’s forecast while dry is still overcast.

Over the day there were two hours in which play was possible; sadly, they started shortly after noon and 40 minutes of them therefore had to be sacrificed to lunch, inevitably including the finest period of the day, complete with occasional glimpses of sunshine. Adding to the frustration during this unwanted lunch break was that few of the players spent any of it eating and action-starved fans were not sated by the sight of them warming up. After two days when fans feasted on a surfeit of action, here there would only ever be light snacking.

England made good use of the limited time they got in the field, but players and crowd alike spent most of the day watching the rain. Photograph: Tom Jenkins/The Guardian

Play started at 12.59pm, stopped at 1.07pm, resumed at 1.21pm, was curtailed again at 1.37pm, recommenced at 1.41pm, and concluded for what proved to be the last time at 2.09pm. It was officially abandoned after the umpires, sheltering under large umbrellas, huddled with the ground staff at 5pm and then attempted one final, optimistic but forlorn inspection of an emphatically covered pitch in thick mizzle 20 minutes later.

The staccato action saw Rachin Ravindra, who made a golden duck in his first innings and dropped two catches, complete a miserable match by being bowled for eight by Ollie Robinson – the top of off stump, which has taken an absolute pummelling this week, reeling once again – even if his first runs came courtesy of a lovely off-drive for four. Then Daryl Mitchell was trapped lbw, also by Robinson, a decision that initially looked unarguable, but was revealed on a review to be extremely marginal – the ball predicted to just clip leg stump, to the bat-swishing frustration of the departing Mitchell.

For New Zealand the frequently discomfited but never quite uprooted Devon Conway ended on 19 off 55, surviving this abbreviated day along with Tom Blundell and a dwindling amount of hope.