England offered stiff resistance in the final session to secure a tedious draw against New Zealand on day five of the first test at Lord's.
Kane Williamson and Joe Root shake hands at the end of the drawn first test at Lord's. Photo: © Photosport Ltd 2021 www.photosport.nz
Chasing 273 for a 1-0 lead in the two-match series, England finished their second innings with 170-3 in 70 overs before both sides shook hands on a draw late in the evening.
Immediately after the match the England & Wales Cricket Board announced it had suspended pace bowler Ollie Robinson for historical racist and sexist tweets.
Having lost day three's play due to rain, New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson declared their second innings at 169-6 at lunch.
Starting the final day, England debutant Ollie Robinson was once again lethal in his opening spell, picking off the first wicket of the morning session as New Zealand nightwatchman Wagner edged a bouncer through to wicketkeeper James Bracey.
The tourists continued to look for boundaries to give their bowlers a chance to fight for a win but lost wickets at regular intervals.
Tom Latham was trapped leg-before on 36 by Stuart Broad before a flying Bracey caught Ross Taylor (33) off Mark Wood's bowling.
Henry Nicholls (23) was caught trying to reverse-sweep Joe Root's off-spin but not before New Zealand had added 97 crucial runs in the morning session.
England openers Rory Burns and Dom Sibley arrived at the crease focusing only on blunting the new-ball bowling attack in a bid to save the test match.
The pair showed incredible patience in adding 49 runs by the 24th over before Burns (25) was caught in the slip cordon off Neil Wagner's bowling.
Zak Crawley (2) did not last long at the crease as he dragged Tim Southee's outswinging delivery straight to gully.
Captain Joe Root (40) was the only wicket to fall in the final session when he was trapped leg-before by Wagner.
Sibley continued to frustrate the bowlers at the other end and finished with 60 off 207 deliveries, while Ollie Pope was unbeaten on 20.
Root, who showed incredible patience for his 40 in the final session, said they adopted a cautious approach given the quality of the visiting bowling attack on a deteriorating surface.
"It was slow and hard to time the ball and get any sort of rhythm," Root told the BBC. "You look at the target and amount of overs you have, it wasn't quite as straightforward as that.
"Of course it will disappoint a few people but from our point of view, we're very much in this series.
"We leave here level and give ourselves a great chance to win the series at Edgbaston."
'Special' Conway praised
New Zealand may have missed an opportunity to put England on the ropes ahead of the second test at Edgbaston, but captain Williamson can take plenty of positives from Lord's.
Devon Conway produced a masterful double hundred on debut, while Tim Southee and Kyle Jamieson proved difficult to contain with the new ball and combined for 10 wickets in the match.
"Special performance from Conway, a special player," Williamson said. "He showed his class on his debut test at the home of cricket.
"Special performance from Tim as well, he led the attack beautifully, and (the other) guys complemented him well. We had to be patient on this pitch, and we got rewards for that."
Meanwhile, the England & Wales Cricket Board has suspended Ollie Robinson from "all international cricket" after a series of historical racist and sexist tweets were revealed as the pace bowler was making his debut on Wednesday.
Robinson, who picked up seven wickets in the match, has since apologised for his "thoughtless and irresponsible" social media posts.
"England and Sussex bowler Ollie Robinson has been suspended from all international cricket pending the outcome of a disciplinary investigation following historic tweets he posted in 2012 and 2013," the ECB said in a statement.
Earlier in his post match comments, Joe Root said more has to be done to educate players "about how to behave in society".
"Ollie's learned a hard lesson. It's unacceptable what he's done," Root said. "He's fronted up to the dressing room and the world.
"We've started doing a lot of good work as a team and we'll continue to do that. We want to make the game as inclusive and diverse as we possibly can and we'll continue to keep looking at finding ways to make that possible."
-Reuters
