Henry Nicholls walked out at No. 3 on Friday carrying the sort of expectation nobody really wants: Kane Williamson had quit international cricket two days earlier and someone had to plug the gap. By stumps the left-hander was 119 not out, New Zealand were 268 ahead, and the Oval crowd had a new name to file under “awkward to dislodge”.
The basics first. England were rolled for 231 shortly after lunch, Matt Henry bagging 5 for 54 – his first five-for against them. New Zealand closed on 197 for 2 in their second dig, Nicholls responsible for two-thirds of those runs. Batting looked easier than it had on day two, the pitch flattening beneath warm south-London sunshine, yet England’s young seam attack still asked enough questions to keep the contest alive.
Nicholls, 34 now and playing only his third Test since early 2024, credited a strong domestic diet for the smooth transition. “Being out of the team for a bit and playing domestically, [I’ve been] really just trying to enjoy my cricket,” he told Sky Sports. “I certainly, in the last couple of years, feel like I’ve actually been playing my best cricket.”
That claim has numbers behind it. He topped the 2025-26 Plunket Shield charts – 870 runs at 96.66 – and had already reminded selectors of his durability with 150* on a low-key trip to Zimbabwe last winter. The bulk of Friday’s runs again arrived through the leg-side, flicks and nudges rather than booming strokes, a method that rarely thrills but just as rarely malfunctions.
“You’ve seen over the last probably four or five years, every player that’s come into the group, they don’t look out of place,” Nicholls added. “It’s a credit to domestic cricket, but the Black Caps environment as well.” That environment, he argued, meant replacing Williamson felt oddly freeing. “I certainly knew when I was coming in for him, I wasn’t going to be able to replace him. He’s just such an incredible player.”
Matt Henry echoed the sentiment. “I’m just so happy for him. He’s shown for a long time his class, and he’s been churning out runs for a long time,” the seamer said. “There’s always external noise, but I suppose it shows the character of him and his resilience to block it out and just do what he needs to do for the team.”
From a tactical angle, New Zealand’s innings was straightforward: absorb the new ball, nudge towards a lead that takes the fourth-innings chase out of sight, and do it at a tempo that doesn’t leave too much time in the game. Nicholls and Devon Conway put on 88 for the second wicket in a shade under 30 overs – neither rapid nor sluggish – before Conway lost off stump to Gus Atkinson. Will Young then settled in, allowing Nicholls to tick past three figures with a clipped two off his hips, helmet raised but celebrations suitably muted.
England’s bowlers toiled without much lateral movement. Atkinson offered pace, Josh Tongue carried the heavy-ball role, and Rob Yates, on debut, was trusted with a few overs of part-time off-spin before tea. The attack is learning on the job, sometimes painfully so, yet Nicholls made it look like county practice: leave outside off, work the straight ones, cash in on anything drifting to leg.
Is the match gone? Probably not. The surface remains true, and if England can prise out Nicholls early on Saturday, a target under 320 is within chasing distance. Still, the visitors feel in front, largely because their stand-in No. 3 declined to panic about the size of the boots he was asked to fill.
“It’s obviously a great day personally,” Nicholls concluded, “but from the team perspective, to bowl them out with the lead and then to be where we are now was exactly what we wanted at the start of the day.” Quiet, measured, effective – very much the Nicholls way, and for one Test at least, more than enough to make New Zealand forget the bloke he has replaced.
