New Zealand v England: second Test, day two – live

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71st over: England 344-4 (Root 115, Stokes 13) Facing Southee, Stokes goes for a yahoo, skies it and should be caught at mid-on – no, the wind is on England’s side again, and the ball just evades the sub fielder, Scott Kuggeleijn. Southee sticks to his task and prioduces a jaffa, jagging away. Stokes misses it by a full bat-width.

70th over: England 341-4 (Root 113, Stokes 12) Root takes a single off Henry, whereupon Stokes steps away to leg, twice – first driving to mid-off for no run, then lofting a cut over the ring for four. Then he misses a scoop. “He’s trying absolutely every trick in the book here,” says David Gower. “Danger is if you overdo it, you lose a couple of wickets and lose that momentum.” My guess is that Stokes is even more relaxed about that than usual, because, with 300 in the bank already, he may be thinking of declaring before long.

“Personally,” says Paul Griffin, “I thought it was quite a streaky triple-century stand, and wonder whether Baz has taken this team as far as he can, or perhaps even lost the dressing room.”

69th over: England 336-4 (Root 112, Stokes 8) Root, like Stokes, is an older man in a hurry. He charges Southee, plays the pull as Southee bangs it in, gets a top-edge but escapes as the wind carries the ball into a gap at long leg. That brings two and he follows it with three via a more orthodox route, clipped off the toes. Stokes, facing his opposite number for the first time since the toss, is respectful, even managing a leave.

68th over: England 331-4 (Root 107, Stokes 8) Here’s Ben Stokes, glancing his third ball off his hips for four, then dancing down the track and cover-driving on the up for four more. So a batter departs with 186 off 176 balls, and the run rate gets quicker.

WICKET! Brook c&b Henry 186 (England 323-4)

Got him! After all those edges, Brook finally middles one but doesn’t keep it down. It heads for Henry’s midriff and he does well to take a juggling catch. So after all that we have a thumping anti-climax, as Brook misses out on his first double hundred. Ah well, it’s good for the game.

The 300 partnership!

67th over: England 323-3 (Root 107, Brook 186) At the other end it’s Tim Southee, the second most threatening bowler so far. Root, standing well outside his crease again, plays a couple of defensive shots and then decides he’s had enough of this and reverse-scoops for six. That takes the partnership to 302.

66th over: England 317-3 (Root 101, Brook 186) It’s Matt Henry, the most threatening bowler so far. He’s on the spot right away and Brook is a bit edgy – an edge into the slips, low and safe enough, and then a thick inside edge into the on side for two. When Henry slips in a bouncer, it’s a lively one, if a bit trampoline-ish. When he goes back of a length, Brook plays a cut and gets another edge – a bottom one. He’s going for the full house!

Joe Root has a word with Harry Brook, and a smile, as he lets him take the field first. Root gets a smile back and runs past Brook. I wonder if it feels like batting with your younger self.

It’s grey in Wellington but not actually raining. The pitch, seen from above, is still a pea-souper.

“Boa noite Tim,” says Geoff Wignall. “Looking at those Harry Brook stats, his weakness seems rather glaring: he’s averaging only 100 balls or so per innings. So he’s getting good starts but failing to capitalise on them. If he could just learn to concentrate he might prove a handy addition to the middle order though.” Ha.

Preamble

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest instalment of the OBO. Ben Stokes’s England bandwagon, which had a prang yesterday morning, is back in the fast lane.

At the wheel is Harry Brook, who just can’t stop making big scores at high speed. Yesterday we flagged up the record for most runs by any batsman in his first nine Test innings, just as Brook entered the top five. By the time the day came to a soggy end, he was No 1. He has hammered 807 runs in those nine innings – the first man ever to reach 800 so fast, eclipsing Vinod Kambli of India on 798 – and he’s still in, threatening to add a few more.

Brook already has 20 sixes in his six Tests, the same as Lance Klusener, the fearsome South African hitter of the Nineties, managed in 49. No previous batsman from any country has averaged two sixes per Test: the closest is Shahid Afridi of Pakistan with 52 in 27 (average 1.93). Until Brook came along, the closest playing today was Shimron Hetmyer of West Indies, who has 27 sixes from 16 Tests (1.69), just ahead of Rishabh Pant of India, who has a mathematically satisfying 55 from 33 (1.67). Brook’s average is 3.33. Yes, the man hits sixes at twice the speed of Pant.

There are 732 batsmen who have made 750 runs in Tests, and Brook has the highest strike rate of them all. His 807 runs have come off 812 balls, so his strike rate is 99.38. The next best (by Afridi) is 86.97. That 99 is a classy touch, making Brook the Bradman of the bish-bosh era. His actual Test average is even higher, at 100.87, but we mustn’t get too excited about that as it’s inflated by a not-out in this innings. When he finally gets out, his average will plummet – to a minimum of 89.67.

His hot spell won’t last forever, of course. Brook has already had one bad patch in his international career, during last year’s T20 World Cup, when the bouncy Australian pitches bothered him and he mustered only 56 in five innings. He may be just a bilateral-series bully. He may be no more than the new Kambli, or the new Jonathan Trott (on speed).

But to my untrained eye he seems really special, because everything happens so fast, from his grasp of length to the way his hands fly into the shot – everything except his choice of stroke, which often comes deliciously late. His hitting is astonishingly clean. He’s a phenomenon: let’s enjoy it while it lasts, while sparing a twinge of sympathy for any Kiwi supporters in the house.

Play starts half an hour early today, to make up some of the time lost to the rain. There are more showers forecast, but they don’t look too bad. Do drop by at 10.30am local time, 9.30pm GMT, to see if Brook can get his first double hundred (in professional cricket, never mind Tests). It shouldn’t take long.