Matt Henry claims seven-wicket haul to keep New Zealand in the fight

By Dean Bilton and Simon Smale of the ABC

Kane Williamson missed a golden opportunity, but Matt Henry stole the show with a seven-wicket haul to remember.

Here are the five quick hits from day two of the second Test at Hagley Oval in Christchurch.

1. Glenn Phillips's wonder catch

With Marnus Labuschagne playing his best innings of the year, you knew it would take something special to get rid of him.

Special barely covers it.

The ball popped off the face of Labuschagne's bat as he looked to work into the off side, flying through the air towards gully.

There, Glenn Phillips leapt to his right and took an absolute worldy.

Perfectly horizontal to the ground, Phillips stuck out his hand and hung on, celebrating wildly.

Labuschagne looked gutted, but even he would have to acknowledge the majesty of the fielding that dismissed him just 10 short of a century.

2. Labuschagne's pressure-relieving fifty

If Labuschagne's meteoric rise to the upper echelons of Test batters is awe-inspiring, his recent woes have been alarming.

Let's put things into perspective first. Coming into this Test, the Queenslander averaged 49.60 from his 49 matches, with 11 hundreds and 19 fifties, having scored over 4,000 runs.

But there has been a significant drop-off.

In 2019, his first full year of Test cricket, he averaged 64.94 and scored 1,104 runs in the calendar year.

n the truncated 2020 and 2021 seasons he averaged 67.94 and 65.75 respectively, before settling into a still-impressive 56.29 in 2022.

But in 2023 he averaged just 34.91, and is going at less than that so far in 2024.

His overall ICC Test batting ranking has dropped from number one at the time of the World Test Championship Final to 13th as of now.

Since he scored his last Test century at Old Trafford in July 2023, Labuschagne scored 251 runs in 14 innings, averaging just 20.91 heading into this Test.

Indeed, Labuschagne was on a run of five consecutive single-digit scores heading into this Test so a big score was vital. And he provided it - 90 valuable runs to remind his critics that he has the temperament and skill for Test cricket.

3. Back-to-back five-fa's for Matt Henry

Matt Henry must like playing at home.

After picking up the wickets of Usman Khawaja, Cameron Green and Travis Head on day one, the Christchurch local picked up where he left off on day two.

First he had Nathan Lyon edging to Daryl Mitchell at first slip, then produced a wonderful delivery to trap Mitch Marsh LBW for a duck - a decision overturned on a gutsy review from Tim Southee.

It's his third Test five-wicket haul and second at Hagley Oval - and kept the Kiwis well in the contest.

4. Williamson's building blocks toppled by Cummins

Kane Williamson has never made a Test century against Australia.

Up until now he had yet to even get off the ground in this series, unable to show the best version of himself after being sent back to the rooms cheaply and quickly.

In this, his final innings of the series and second dig of his 100th Test, his determination to change all of that couldn't be any more clear. He had that look in his eye from the get-go, and he entered that Kane Williamson zone.

He was near enough to faultless for nearly three hours of batting. He passed 50 with a casual ease and looked for all money like he was setting himself up for one of the biggest moments of his career.

Enter Pat Cummins. The first ball of a new spell for the skipper nipped back on Williamson ever so slightly and brought about one of the very few false shots of his innings. The inside edge crashed into the stumps and Williamson threw his head back.

Could that be his best and last chance for a century against the cross-Tasman rivals? For cricket's sake we hope not. But this was a wicket of massive significance for Cummins and Australia.

5. Latham steers New Zealand in front

As impressive as Williamson's fight was, Tom Latham's ability to see out some probing and relentless fast bowling was just as good.

Latham carried his bat through to stumps - albeit with the stroke of luck of an Alex Carey drop - and sits at 65*, having helped take the Black Caps to a 40-run lead.

The game is perfectly poised now. If Latham can continue his form and be joined by a teammate along the way - preferably Rachin Ravindra, who also scraped through to stumps - New Zealand is in a good position to set Australia a very tricky chase.

But Australia will feel it is one or two wickets away from blowing through New Zealand and taking a stronghold on the game.

It's up for grabs in Christchurch, and day three could be decisive.

This story was first published by the ABC