England Vs New Zealand Test Match Series
England’s Jonny Bairstow and skipper Ben Stokes guided their team to a five-wicket victory in the second Test against New Zealand and clinching the three-match series. While both teams’ first innings scores of 500 or more suggested the match might conclude in a draw. New Zealand set a daunting goal of 299, which England took down with five wickets and more than 20 overs to spare.
With this victory, England had won their first series under the Stokes-McCullum pair in charge.
England’s chase for 299 was off to a bad start when opener Zak Crawley was dismissed for a duck at the score of 12.
Following a 41-run partnership between Ollie Pope and Alex Lees, the former lost his wicket to pacer Matt Henry for 18 runs after being caught by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell. Root, the hero of the previous innings, was only able to score three runs. Lees and Bairstow tried to put up a fight before the former was removed by Southee for 44, reducing England to 93/4.
Bairstow scored one of the fastest Century for England
Bairstow and skipper Ben Stokes seized command of the game after that. They crushed Kiwi bowlers all over the park. Bairstow was on another level entirely, completing his century in 77 balls and setting a new record for the fastest century in the game’s fourth innings.
Trent Boult interrupted the 179-run stand between the two batsmen, dismissing Bairstow for an entertaining 136 off 92 balls, including 14 fours and seven sixers. Stokes, on the other hand, continued to bat and won the game for his team, scoring 75 off 70 balls with 10 fours and four sixes. Ben Foakes, the wicketkeeper-batsman, remained unbeaten at 12.
Trent Boult, who took 3/94, was the Kiwis’ best bowler. Southee and Henry took a wicket each.
The toss was won by England, and they chose to bat first. New Zealand scored 553/10 in the first innings of the match. New Zealand’s leading scorers in the innings were Daryl Mitchell (190) and Tom Blundell (106). England’s top bowler, James Anderson, took 3/62 in 27 overs.
England was bowled out for 539 in their first innings. Their stars were Joe Root (176) and Ollie Pope (145), as well as Ben Foakes (56). The Kiwis’ finest bowlers were Trent Boult (5/106) and Michael Bracewell (3/62).
New Zealand was bowled out for 284 in their second innings. With the bat, the Kiwis were led by Will Young (56), Devon Conway (52) and Daryl Mitchell (62*). This gave England a 299-run target to win the match and the series.
England won the match very comfortably and Jonny Bairstow wrote his name in the record books.
