Mark Richardson's painstaking 93 was the cornerstone of New Zealand's 284 for five on a finely balanced opening day of the first Test against England at Lord's on Thursday.
Left-handed opener Richardson, who batted for over six hours, was within touching distance of his fourth Test hundred when, in fading light, he was given out lbw to paceman Stephen Harmison by Australian umpire Darrell Hair.
But replays showed Richardson, dropped twice by England, had got a big inside-edge on to his pad.
PHOTO: EPA
Richardson's best Test score against England saw him face 266 balls including 17 fours.
Together with all-rounder Jacob Oram he shared a stand of 106, his second hundred partnership of the innings after putting on 103 with Nathan Astle.
When bad light forced an early close Oram was 64 not out off 75 balls including 10 fours. Nightwatchman Daryl Tuffey was two not out.
Oram's innings and Astle's dashing 64 may have been more crowd-pleasing but there was no doubting the value of Richardson's effort.
And Oram's attacking display ensured the innings did not stagnate as his fellow left-hander Richardson, strong through the offside and square of the wicket, carried on in measured fashion.
New Zealand, 172 for three at tea, lost Craig McMillan in the sixth over afterwards when he was lbw to seamer Matthew Hoggard for six.
But England missed a chance when Richardson, still on his tea score of 56, saw Ashley Giles drop a difficult chance in the gully following a sliced drive off Harmison.
Richardson was previously given a life on 24 when Graham Thorpe failed to hold a right-handed slip chance above his head.
Oram used his height to good effect with some booming straight driven fours.
England struggled with their line to the left-handers just as they had done earlier with Fleming.
Marcus Trescothick, deputizing as England captain in place of the injured Michael Vaughan, eventually brought on left-arm spinner Giles after 72 overs of pace bowling.
But soon afterwards Oram drove Giles straight back over his head for four, the first of five boundaries he took off the Warwickshire bowler.
An aggressive pulled four by Oram off Harmison brought up a hundred partnership with Richardson in 148 balls.
Earlier, England took two wickets in five balls and in the process ended Richardson and Astle's stand.
Astle, despite giving Richardson a 67-ball start, was first to his fifty.
He played some sublime strokes before he nicked a good length ball from Flintoff through to wicket-keeper Geraint Jones.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
PAINFUL VICTORY: Ruud said that felt pain in his rib during the warmup and was put on painkillers so that he could finish the match against Argentine Francisco Cerundolo With the help of painkillers, Casper Ruud overcame a rib ailment to defeat Francisco Cerundolo in straight sets and reach the Madrid Open final on Friday. Ruud is to face Jack Draper, who beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-3, 7-6 (4) in the other semi-final to make his third final of the year. Ruud received treatment on his rib three games into the match and went on to win 6-4, 7-5 on the Caja Magica center court. The 15th-ranked Norwegian saved 15 of the 18 break points he faced against the 21st-ranked Argentine. Ruud said he felt something in his rib during the warmup, just before
RSS