England chasing 277 to beat New Zealand: first Test, day four England vs New Zealand | Sportson

68th over: England 230-5 (Root 85, Foakes 13) Boult once more. Root pulls him away to the boundary rider to pick up two more. He then opens the face on a length ball to get a single. Foakes is watchful for the rest of the over. 47 more needed for England.

68th over: England 227-5 (Root 82, Foakes 13) Jamieson does get his massive paws on the ball, replacing Southee. Foakes drives him past mid-on for two and a couple of leg-byes see four come from the over. Sprightly from England this morning. I’m saying no more.

Safe to say some of you are more optimistic than others this morning:

Here’s Harry Lang:

“Hi James, I’m off to run the Jubilee lunch tombola in our new village. As such, I’ll miss Root’s glorious hundred and Foakes sailing towards fifty before a near collapse, only salvaged at the death by a Broad ‘6 and out’ and a clumsy lofted wedge single from Jimmy to wrap it up. Yes, Jubilee weekend has filled me with naive patriotism. Bring on the rollercoaster!

This made me chuckle from Tom Morgan in Berlin:

“Hey Jim. My wife has booked us a 90-minute tour of underground Berlin starting at 11.30 uk time. No network in the bunker obviously. OBOers, how are your loved ones preventing you from following the most exciting climax to a test for ages?”

You’ll have loads of fun I reckon Tom. And emerge above ground to…

67th over: England 223-5 (Root 80, Foakes 11) Boult hurtles in through the gloom, these really are quite tricky batting conditions. A far cry from the balmy sunshine of yesterday afternoon. Root does what Root does, gliding him away through point for a brace of twos.

66th over: England 219-5 (Root 78, Foakes 11) A hearty cheer goes round the ground from the cagoule clad crowd as Root flicks Tim Southee away for the first runs of the morning. Foakes then settles his nerves with a defeat flick through mid-wicket for two. First over negotiated. It’s going to be Trent Boult from the Pavilion End next up. Williamson must’ve been tempted to go with Jamieson, he was terrific yesterday.

Tom Nolan pipes up with a relevant point:

“Interesting to hear Broad talking about the responsibility of the players to get England over the line this morning. Let’s hope he remembers his words before he tries mullering every delivery to the boundary and getting out for a quick-fire 7.

I suspect England will need its long tail to hang around and/or score some runs if they want to win this.”

Despite the leaden skies the players emerge from the Pavilionwe are going to have play – on time too!

David Horn is the first OBOer down the line, and he isn’t hopeful…

“Morning James, my name is David and I’m a pessimist. It has been 40 years since I last tasted optimism. This is purely anecdotal (I don’t have the statsguru chops to back this up), but my sense is that Root never goes on ‘the following morning’. Whenever he is ‘not out’ overnight, he seems to be dismissed within a few overs the next day. I don’t see it changing, and I’m giving it 45 minutes this morning, tops.

You’re welcome!”

Err thanks David. Not quite the rabble rousing tone England fans were after. Anyone else?!

Joe Root warms up in front of the pavilion ahead of play on the fourth day. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Updated at 05.56 EDT

The Equation

Hello and welcome to a mizzly Lord’s, the floodlights are beaming away through the murk. I’m not sure we’ll start on time but when the players do get on the field it won’t take long, either way.

England need 61 runs, New Zealand need 5 wickets.

Joe Root is still there, of course he is, on 77* – he needs 23 more to reach 10,000 Test runs.

Ben Foakes is there too, on 9* off 48 balls.

Time for a coffee and to see if I can winkle a weather update.