Ben Duckett's rapid hundred led England's stirring reply to New Zealand's 438 on day two of the series-deciding Trent Bridge test.
Duckett's 113 from 98 balls beside Jacob Bethell's unbeaten 74 platformed England to 223-2 at stumps, trailing by 215 runs.
On his home ground, Duckett romped against a depleted New Zealand attack that was hamstrung again by the forced exit of fast bowler Blair Tickner, one of three changes from the Kiwis' win at The Oval last weekend.
Tickner, while batting after lunch at the end of New Zealand's innings, was hit on the helmet by Jofra Archer and passed fit at the time. Tickner then bowled three expensive overs before tea, but after tea, he left the field complaining of nausea and didn't return. He was ruled out of the match by concussion and replaced by Zac Foulkes, also playing his sixth test.
Duckett was gone by the time Foulkes bowled, but he entertained with his first century in just over a year. After a poor Ashes in Australia, he deliberately skipped the Indian Premier League to stay home and fix his technique in the County Championship.
Dropped on 8 by third slip, Henry Nicholls off Nathan Smith's bowling, Duckett raced to 50 off 40 balls before tea, and completed his seventh test hundred after tea off 88 balls.
After hitting 18 boundaries mainly through the covers or behind square, Duckett got to three figures on a single and fist-pumped in celebration.
“You can see making a century on my home ground means a lot to me,” he told broadcaster Sky Sports. "I was quite emotional and tried to take it all in.
"I've really felt it has been coming. It's not gone my way in the first few tests (19, 33, 36, 9) but the age I am now I believe in my game and thought a score was round the corner. I nicked off on 8, and when that went down, I then thought maybe it was my day. I have been working extremely hard in the last few months.”
It was the second-earliest time an England batter has reached a century from the start of an innings, 26.1 overs. The earliest was also by Duckett, in 25.5 overs against India in Rajkot in 2024.
Smith finally got his wicket when Duckett, looking tired, dragged on. That ended a partnership with Bethell of 179 at almost six per over.
“It's a good pitch to bat on,” Duckett said. “I knew there would be boundary options and how quickly you can score here. I didn't want to go into my shell and look for a score, so I just played my natural game.”
The run rate dropped as Bethell and Joe Root kept their wickets advantage to stumps. Root was 21 not out.
Earlier, England captain Ben Stokes bagged his 250th test wicket as New Zealand collapsed from 317-0 on Friday to 438 all out after lunch on Saturday.
New Zealand resumed on 361-4 overnight, and Stokes, as he did on Friday, made the day's first breakthrough by getting Daryl Mitchell to edge behind on 11.
Stokes' haul of 4-70 took him to ninth place on England's all-time list of wicket-takers. The 35-year-old allrounder is back in the team along with pacer Gus Atkinson after they were dropped for the second test at The Oval for disciplinary reasons.
Spinner Shoaib Bashir and Archer took two wickets each on another baking hot day with temperatures up to 34C.
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Fri, Jun 26
Emilio Gay was the only home batsman to fall before tea, caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell off Will O’Rourke for nought.
The rest of the day was the Duckett show.
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