Henry Nicholls notches 11th test century to put Black Caps on top of England

Saturday, 20 June 2026

Second test, The Oval: New Zealand 391 and 252-3 (Henry Nicholls 119 not out, Rachin Ravindra 76, Daryl Mitchell 32no) vs England 291 (Emilio Gay 53, Matthew Fisher 50no, Joe Root 46; Matt Henry 5-80). Click here for full scoreboard.

Kane who?

Henry Nicholls marked his return to test cricket with a century as the Black Caps moved towards what should be a series-levelling victory.

Nicholls, no stranger to the whites with New Zealand, was however playing his first match in the format in almost a year after the country’s greatest batter, Kane Williamson, pulled stumps on his majestic career after the first-test loss at Lord’s last week.

In NZ’s second innings at The Oval in London overnight (NZ time), Nicholls made his 11th test ton to guide the visitors to 252-3 at stumps on day three, walking off unbeaten on 119 from 164 balls.

That left the Black Caps with a lead of 352 runs, with two full days left to play and the weather forecast for the England capital looking promising.

The left-hander lost his long-term test batting place at the end of 2023 as Rachin Ravindra established himself as NZ’s No.4.

Nicholls did get an opportunity to impress when Williamson and skipper Tom Latham didn’t play in a two-test series in Zimbabwe in the middle of last year, and made an unbeaten 150 in the second test, but didn’t keep his place when the duo returned for the three tests at home against the West Indies at the end of the year.

The 34-year-old, batting at No.3, teamed up with his original usurper to push home New Zealand’s advantage on day three. Ravindra made a fluent 76 from 89 balls, with 15 boundaries, as the pair put on 161 for the third wicket after England got a brief sniff of being back in the contest.

After a hair-raising start against a rapid Jofra Archer, Nicholls gradually flourished in the partnership after Ravindra was dropped on seven by debutant wicketkeeper James Rew.

Earlier, an Archer cover drive off Kyle Jamieson suggested wicket-taking wasn't going to be simple when England resumed their first innings at 222-6.

So it helped when the last recognised batter, debutant Jordan Cox, flicked a straight delivery from Matt Henry in the vicinity - and off the ground enough - for Latham to snaffle after plonking himself at short midwicket.

Latham was clearly well aware of the effect Australian wicketkeeper Alex Carey had standing up to the stumps with the seamers bowling in last summer’s Ashes as Tom Blundell was again used in the same role again following his successful impact on day two.

He took a splendid catch off Henry’s bowling to dismiss Archer and soon after the NZ pace-bowling spearhead recorded his seventh five-wicket bag in tests - and first versus England - but No.9 Matt Fisher made just his third first-class fifty and put on 53 for the last wicket with Sonny Baker.

With a 100-run lead, NZ lost Latham (4) and Conway (11) before Nicholls and Ravindra took over.

Match situation and what to expect on day four

A declaration now seems highly likely to end New Zealand’s second innings.

Latham will be busy in the pavilion doing his sums on how many overs to give his bowlers to dismiss England for a second time.

England will no doubt chase a target for victory - and a series win - and in aggressive fashion.

Stat of the day

Only once in their last 140 tests have England conceded more byes than those which have gone past debutant wicketkeeper-batter James Rew so far - 22 in the first innings as the hosts conceded 53 extras, and five in the second to date.

What they said

Matt Henry gave plenty of praise to wicketkeeper Tom Blundell after taking five wickets in England's first innings.

'Tom is unbelievably impressive behind the stumps.

'A couple of years ago we started implementing [having] the keeper up. It doesn't seem to faze him, he's always up for the challenge and I think the keeping display he showed today was some of the best I've seen in a long time,' Henry said.

'It's all well and good having the keeper up, but to be able to execute, you need your man looking after you, so he's been incredible.'

Henry said fast bowlers needed to ignore their ego to make the tactic work.

'I think the key thing is creating a challenge, so we parked the ego a long time ago.

'I think you can still bowl with energy and have the keeper up, and I think that mentality of still being able to hit the wicket, you need to trust in the keeper.'

Henry, who could manage to bowl only 11 overs in the Lord’s loss due to back spasms, was delighted for Nicholls.

“I think he's shown his class for a long time.

'There's always external noise, but I suppose it shows the character of him really and his resilience to block it out and just do what he needed to do for the team. and that's something that he puts a lot of pride into.'