England stretches lead to 99 at lunch as New Zealand all out for 113 at Lord's

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LONDON (AP) — Opening batters Ben Duckett and Emilio Gay helped push England's lead to a healthy 99 against New Zealand by lunch on the second day of the first test at Lord's on Friday.

England earned a 27-run lead on first innings despite making 140, and was 72-1 in 15 overs at the interval.

New Zealand was all out for 113 inside the first hour after resuming on 61-6. New Zealand was 29-6 on Thursday evening so the last four batters added 84 runs.

England's left-handed openers endured a lively start to the second innings on a pitch still helping the quicks in overcast conditions. The stadium lights came on after midday.

Duckett, dropped on 12 and jammed on the finger, was finally out for 33 and newcomer Gay was 24 not out after making 8 in the first innings. With him was Jacob Bethell on 8.

Kyle Jamieson, after his five-for in the first innings, opened the New Zealand attack and should have had Duckett's wicket but Rachin Ravindra bombed a regulation catch at short midwicket. Ravindra also dropped a sitter off Harry Brook on Thursday.

Duckett survived a working over from Will O'Rourke and took it out on Matt Henry. Back spasms limited Henry to four bowled overs and less than an hour of play on Thursday but he batted on Friday — lasting five balls — and practice bowled between the innings to green-light his prime job.

Henry’s first two deliveries were smacked to the boundary by Duckett, but the batter's growing fluency cost him in the next over when he angled O'Rourke straight to a catch at gully to end a valuable opening stand of 52.

Gay also hit Henry for consecutive boundaries in the late flurry of runs.

The morning also started well for England.

Josh Tongue quickly knocked over the off stumps of overnight batters Glenn Phillips and Nathan Smith but Jamieson, who has one test fifty, took on England after receiving a hit on his helmet, a remarkable feat by Tongue against 2.07-meter Jamieson, New Zealand's tallest-ever cricketer.

Jamieson hammered Tongue and Ollie Robinson for three sixes and reached 38 off 29 balls to be the second highest scorer in the game at that point, but he was left stranded.

Robinson had been bowling short instead of at the wickets, and finally bowled Henry to end the innings and take test-best figures of 5-39, his first five-for since 2022 and first at Lord's — quite the feat in his welcome back to test cricket.

Tongue had 3-40 and Atkinson 2-9.

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AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket