NEW ZEALAND VS ENGLAND, 2ND TEST,WELLINGTON : England’s Crushing Victory Overshadows Blundell’s Defiant Last Stand To Win Test Series .
England bowled New Zealand out for 259 to win the second Test by a resounding 323 runs in Wellington on Sunday and take the series with one Test remaining. Joe Root scored a century and captain Ben Stokes took three wickets on the third and final day as England claimed a series victory on New Zealand soil for the first time since 2008. Ben Duckett and Jacob Bethell added 92 and 96 runs respectively, apart from Root. Young batter Harry Brook also bashed 123 runs in the first innings. All eyes were turning towards pacer Gus Atkinson who also showcased his magic hat-trick. England’s Crushing Victory Overshadows Blundell’s Defiant Last Stand To Win Test Series By 0-2 .
TOSS-
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl First.
PLAYING XI-
New Zealand Squad:
Tom Latham (c), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wk), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, William O’Rourke
England Squad:
Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wk), Ben Stokes (c), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir
DAY 1-
Tom Latham won the toss and this time decided to bowl, but would have been aware that a positive impact in the first two hours of the game was the nature of the challenge. His pacers responded by normalising downing England to 43 for 4, with both Henry and Smith enjoying appreciable sideways movement to tear apart the top-order. Pope sent the first ball after the drinks break fizzing off a length, a sign of what was to come for the next session and a half. Brook was initially tentative, but he came out of his shell by giving Nathan Smith the charge to hit a six over extra cover. In the same over, he dispatched two short balls to the two square boundaries in a 20-run over. He served such treatment to all the other bowlers too, hitting four more sixes during Brook’s destructive stay.
He and Pope added 77 runs in 12 overs in the second hour of the morning session to help England reach Lunch at 124/4. The New Zealand crack were loose with their lengths to begin with in the second session and the pair latched on immediately. It was Smith who bore the brunt yet again as 16 were plundered off his jurisdiction including two boundaries and a six, which was ejected off the outside edge of the bat belonging to Brook and barely misses falling into the hands of second slip. Brook punished Henry both square of the wicket — clipping a short ball over square leg and cutting one outside off-stump past third slip. Brook shuffled outside off to meet the spin of Glenn Phillips with a spring in his step – clattering a six down the ground. At the other end, though, Pope also took his chances – pulling and cutting his way to a breezy half-century.
New Zealand gnarled a review in desperation but was unable to find a way through as that partnership swelled. But just after Brook had raised his century, Pope top-edged a short ball from O’Rourke that Rachin Ravindra ran in from forward short leg to pouch. Chris Woakes and Brook added until just before Tea when the latter was run out on 123. The England tail capitulated, particularly to Smith, tumble from 259/7 at Tea to 280 all-out in the first minutes of the final session.
In New Zealand’s response, Gus Atkinson had his way early on, as Devon Conway, playing away from his body, edged one to Brook at second slip. Latham did not share quite that level of good fortune, but Kane Williamson did during the short alliance between the two, when he was thoroughly beaten by a Brydon Carse delivery that clattered into off-stump only to be discovered when the speedster had overstepped. He survived even a caught behind call on review, with snicko registering a spike but only against his bat as it brushed his pad. However, not long after the drinks break of the final session, Tom Latham turned Stokes in to his stumps. From here New Zealand pictures were not so rosy, as Rachin Ravindra inside edges a ball from Woakes onto his thigh pad. It ballooned off it and Carse did well to dive forward and take a one-handed catch.
Carse had Williamson caught behind as the light started to fade, and he registered a third when Ryan Ripon edged him. As O’Rourke strolled out as nightwatchman, the other regular batter was out at the other end, however, when Daryll Mitchell was caught down the leg side to hand Carse his second wicket. New Zealand ended the day at 86/5 with Tom Blundell and O’Rourke at the crease.
DAY 2-
New Zealand resumed the day with an overnight total of 86/5 and was bowled out for a mere 125 in less than 10 overs. Brydon Carse claimed a wicket with his first ball of the morning, sending Tom Blundell back to the pavilion with a peach that squared the batter up and cleaned him up. It was the same ball he bowled Kane Williamson on Day 1, except this time, he overstepped and the dismissal was null and void. This wasn’t the case for Blundell. Soon after, Carse bowled one full and fast to the nightwatchman William O’Rourke to earn a leg before for a duck of 26 balls.
Phillips and Smith swung around the bat to drag the team past 100 but Atkinson completed an early finish to the innings. Smith inside edged a ball onto the stumps; Matt Henry missed and then hit off the block on a first-up short ball and edged the ball to Duckett at gully; A full-skiddy delivery struck Southee on the front pad while pinned to his crease. His dismissal was Atkinson’s third in the hattrick.
England carried a 155-run first-innings lead into their second dig. It began with two fours in a row off Zak Crawley but Henry had him caught at mid-wicket in only the second over – the fourth time he has dismissed him this series. From here started the second-wicket partnership between Bethell and Duckett that so crushed New Zealand’s spirit. They began in top gear, matching one another as they found fours and sixes at will. An opportunity was given to Duckett when Tom Latham failed to grasp have backed on down the leg side. Another LBW appeal for the wicket of Bethell was reviewed and again it burned Southee.
The two were breezing through earnest fifties and galloping towards their hundreds when Southee got them both. The fast bowler had Bethell nicking behind to Latham while Duckett played one back onto his stumps. The wickets and the Tea break were not exactly the reprieve New Zealand would have wanted from the game as Root and Brook stitched together to prolong the pain for the visitors in the last session. Another partnership bloomed, and England’s lead stretched beyond 400. New Zealand was running out of ideas, lost yet another review trying to get Root out off a caught behind.
Brook was at it again, threading short balls, and punishing overpitched deliveries through the covers. Glenn Phillips was introduced for a lengthy spell in which he claimed the first-innings centurion, Brook mistiming a loft down the ground and going straight to O’Rourke at long-off. Root soon added his 65th Test fifty – his 100th 50-plus score (one ahead of Rahul Dravid) Henry accounted for Ollie Pope when England were approaching 500 lead. But declaration was not on Ben Stokes’s mind. Instead, he walked out to frustrate New Zealand further by tonking his way to an unbeaten 36 off 26 before stumps. Root finished Day 2 on 73\*, setting him up to look for his 36th Test hundred on Day 3.
DAY 3-
Root resumed on 73 overnight and quickly raised his century — him playing a reverse-ramp shot over the wicketkeeper for a four. Yes, England, who had stretched their advantage well past 500 on Day 2, maintained their batting expediency in the pursuit of fast runs. They batted only 6.3 overs, adding 49 runs, including Root’s century — off 127 balls — and a stand of 100 off 79 balls between him and Ben Stokes. The England captain announced his intention as soon as Root was caught behind off William O’Rourke to give New Zealand a daunting target of 583. The England bowlers then really got stuck in.
Devon Conway’s miserable series continued when he went without scoring, cleaned up by a length ball from Chris Woakes in the third over of the chase. That was a route England bowlers were perennially on the ball about on a blustery morning, and they were immediately rewarded. Kane Williamson struggled against Woakes, beaten and unable to cope with an occasional excess bounce. But Woakes had him nicking one to Ollie Pope in the seventh over, leaving New Zealand reduced to 25/2. That quickly became 33/3 as Brydon Carse got to work in his first over — taking a magnificent return catch to remove Tom Latham.
Daryll Mitchell and Rachin Ravindra tried to calm the nerves before Lunch but Carse had the latter chasing a ball outside the off-stump and only able to edge it behind. Chasing a target of 562, Blundell was dropped at third slip, by Jacob Bethell, before he had opened his account, and he and New Zealand’s effort to fight back during the post-Lunch session rode on that repreive. He and Mitchell stemmed the bleed for the opening hour of the session, but immediately following drinks Gus Atkinson returned and had Mitchell nibble behind where Pope snaffled his third catch of the innings.
New Zealand were five down with Blundell and Glenn Phillips swiping their bats for a few but that carried the risk of yet another breakthrough. Shoaib Bashir got him, dismissing Phillips after the latter had butchered the spinner for a four and a six in the same over. Bashir reacted to the barrage by going fuller and faster, sneaking the ball through and troubling the stumps. A 97-run stand between Blundell and Nathan Smith that extended into the final session began as some defiance from 141/6.
Blundell’s 50 was from 56 balls while he went with aggression on his defiance against England. Nathan Smith showed up and massacred him for the carnage to give the partisan crowd to cheer. Blundell even hit a delivery from Bashir for six out of the ground. The duo, who added a breezy 50-run stand before the Tea break, took their side to Tea on 199/6.
When play resumed, they maintained the same tone, as Blundell gave Bashir the charge to hit another six. At 99, Ben Stokes set catchers around the bat to coax an error. Blundell became a little bit more circumspect but eventually he moved into three figures with an inside edge, to the delight of a home crowd that had seen him make waves with a debut hundred back in 2017. And yet after all that risk-taking, he was finally dismissed off a moment of cheeky brilliance by Ben Duckett at first slip. Duckett anticipated coming across from first slip as Blundell prepared to play a paddle sweep after fine leg was taken out, and the move paid off when he reached it and took the catch as he juggled the ball once.
Ben Stokes then took it upon himself to remove the tail single-handedly. Matt Henry holed out to a short ball, pulling it to deep square leg where Bethell took a decent catch on the boundary’s edge. Nathan Smith also fell victim to Stokes’ short ball, caught behind down the leg side. Tim Southee, who had walked out for the last time at Basin Reserve to a rousing applause, swatted another Stokes bouncer to Woakes at deep mid-wicket to usher in the end of the home game and the series.
SCOREBOARD:
England 280 (Harry Brook 123, Ollie Pope 66; Nathan Smith 4-86, William O’Rourke 3-49, Matt Henry 2-43) & 427/6 decl. (106 Joe Root, 96 Jacob Bethell, 92 Ben Duckett, 55 Harry Brook; 2-72 Tim Southee, 2-100 Matt Henry) beat New Zealand 125 (37 Kane Williamson; 4-31 Gus Atkinson, 4-46 Brydon Carse) & 280 (115 Tom Blundell, 42 Nathan Smith; 3-5 Ben Stokes, 2-20 Chris Woakes, 2-53 Brydon Carse) by 323 runs.