Henry Nicholls reaches 50 as rain gives England hope of salvaging draw in First Test

Half century: Henry Nicholls
Getty Images
Greg Stutchbury24 March 2018

Rain wiped out virtually the entire third day's play in the First Test between New Zealand and England with only 17 balls bowled on Saturday as the hosts extended their lead to 175 runs.

Henry Nicholls took advantage of a brief dry spell to reach his sixth test half century before rain forced the players from the field after about 10 minutes of play in the first session with New Zealand on 233 for four.

Nicholls, who had resumed on 49, clipped a James Anderson delivery off his hip for two runs to bring up the mark.

He then almost ran out batting partner BJ Watling while taking a quick single. The wicketkeeper, however, was fortunate that the throw from Chris Woakes was wide.

Watling was on 18 and Nicholls 52 when rain, which had washed out almost the entire second day, forced the players off again.

Officials tried to restart play on several occasions but the rain kept returning as they were making pitch inspections or while groundstaff were preparing the outfield.

Play was eventually abandoned at about 5.45am UK time.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in