England thrash the Kiwis

Pic from: getty images

England completed their preparations for the upcoming Ashes series with the Australians, with an emphatic win against fellow Australasian opponents New Zealand in the Second test match at Headingley and in doing so completed a sweep in the 2 match series taking it 2-0.

There was no play on the opening day as the whole first day was washed out due to rain and constant showers in the Leeds area, So we started the Second day with Alistair Cook winning the coin toss for England and deciding to bat first as the pitch was bathed in sunshine on the Saturday and looked like we was going to get some play finally.

England`s opening batsman of Cook and Compton came to the crease hoping to get a good start for the hosts, however yet again an early wicket came for the Tourists as Nick Compton was out early off the bowling of Tim Southee and Dean Brownlie taking the catch behind to dismiss the Somerset man for just 1 run.

Jonathan Trott came to the wicket and put on a 56 run partnership with his Captain before Neil Wagner got rid of him with the Kiwi Captain Brendan McCullum taking the catch as he went for 28, Shortly after Cook departed for 34 as England stumbled to 67-3 and looked like a collapse was imminent in the top order.

Ian Bell and Local lad Joe Root put England on the road to recovery as they put 79 on between them till Bell was then out caught by McCullum off the bowling of Kane Williamson for just 30 as Bell has struggled to find a any form in this series.

 

Pic from: bbc sports

The Yorkshire pairing of Joe Root & Jonny Bairstow then put England back in control as the two White rose youngsters put on a batting class as they hit and driven the Kiwi bowlers all over the Headingley ground, Both passed their half centuries and looked to try and kick on at their home ground. New Zealand reviewed a not out given to Root when he was on 94, As they felt he had edged to slips. As it turned out, it had hit his pads and so the Black Caps had used up their reviews and the 22-year old Root managed to grab his maiden test match Hundred on his home ground and got a stand ovation from his fellow White rose supporters in the crowd.

Unfortunately though for Root, he couldn`t make any more on his big score as he was out after Trent Boult was brought back into the New Zealand attack and it paid dividends, as he got the wicket and it wasn`t too long before he removed his partner in crime in Jonny Bairstow in similar fashion to remove them both, as McCullum caught both of them out.

England were 279-6 and were gaining on 300 when Stuart Broad was out for second ball duck and so was left for Graeme Swann coming in to play out the rest of the second day with Matt Prior as England finished on  337-7 at stumps.

Third day saw New Zealand restrict the hosts to just 17 runs as they bowled them out early in the morning for 354. Prior was first out for 39 caught by Ross Taylor off the bowling of Southee, Steven Finn was then bowled for 6 by Trent Boult and James Anderson was caught & bowled for 0.

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This then let the England bowlers loose on the Kiwi`s and they dismantled them with gusto, The Tourists had got off to a ok start with Fulton and Rutherford putting up 55 runs on the board before Steven Finn broke through, taking the wickets of Peter Fulton first with a caught & bowled and then got Hamish Rutherford out thanks to Ian Bell taking the catch, as he dismissed the openers for 28 & 27 respectively. Finn was on a bit of a roll and so picked up his 3rd wicket of the innings when he bowled Ross Taylor for just 6 and the Black Caps were in a spot of bother.

Graeme Swann then came into the attack and took a few wickets himself, as he bowled Dean Brownlie for 2 and then with a same kind of delivery got the ball landing right in the foot holes and spinning back in with pace cleaning bowling Guptill for 1 with a cracking delivery.

Kane Williamson then fell to the Spinner as well for 13 as New Zealand were stunned and found themselves 82 - 6 with Swann and Finn doing the damage.

Tim Southee and Brendan McCullum then tried to stop the damage, as they stuck in and tried to salvage the innings as they both played little knocks till Stuart Broad then got in on the action, trapping Southee LBW for 19 before Swann came back  to remove Bracewell with Bell taking the catch as he mustered up 1, Broad got the big wicket of McCullum for 20 with him hitting the ball straight back to the Nottinghamshire bowler for a caught and bowled.

New Zealand were in disarray as they found themselves 122-9 with England ripping them apart, until they found an unlikely partnership in the last wicket stand with Neil Wagner and Trent Boult playing some good shots as they battled to avoid the follow on.

Both Kiwi tail-enders were just playing shots as it was damaged limitations for the tourists, but it didn`t stop these two having fun out in the middle as Boult smashed three 6`s and Wagner scored six 4`s as they moved their side nearer to avoiding the follow on. James Anderson managed to finish off the innings as he clean bowled Wagner for 27 to have New Zealand finish on 174 all out after 43.4 over’s.

Cook chose not to enforce the follow on, which seemed a strange move considering the weather reports were bad for the next couple of days, so it made sense to bowl at them straight away and finish it off as quick as they could, it left many of the pundits scratching their collective heads over the choice the England captain made.

Pic from: bbc sports

England came out for their 2nd Innings anyway and was a definite difference between the two openers in confidence, as where Cook was playing shots and looking aggressive, Compton looked to have no confidence and was very defensive hoping to play his way into the innings.

Things rolled onto 72 for no wicket when Compton was out cheap once again and questions were now being asked if he was worth a place for the Ashes series later in the summer as he failed to make a yet another good score, as he was dismissed for 7 off Kane Williamson bowling and Rutherford catching taking the catch.

England with the lead still from the first innings was hoping to set a tough target for their opponents and were well on the way of doing that, as their Captain led from the front racking up runs and with Trott there too they both started to pile on the runs which saw Cook convert a fifty into a Hundred for his 25th century for England as they pushed on the scoring.

Cook then misjudged a stroke off Williamson and Tim Southee caught the captain out as his score of 130 was given a standing ovation as he walked off the pitch.

Ian Bell tried to keep the scoring ticking on, but he gave away his wicket for 6 as his attempted hook went up in the air and was eventually caught by Guptill after he managed to fumble it on more than one occasion and was puffing his cheeks out in relief at catching it.

Trott then took his time when England needed to get on as the reports of the weather for the 5th day was very gloomy indeed, Trott managed to score 11 runs off 69 balls in the afternoon session, This wasn`t what England needed at all.

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Neil Wagner then disposed of Trott with McCullum taking the edge and the Warwickshire batsman went for 76, This then led to the two Yorkshire lads of Root & Bairstow pushing the score on as they played like it was a one day game. As England moved passed the World record target by 50 runs, Cook decided it was time to declare as they both put on a partnership of 54 before they declared after Root was caught by Guptill off Wagner for 28 and Prior added 4 to the total.

That meant England set the Tourists a target of 468 to chase down and win the test match. England made a great start as they got Peter Fulton out early for 5 from the bowling of Stuart Broad and Bell holding on. Kane Williamson came and went after he scored just 3 before he was given LBW by Swann, Hamish Rutherford then followed next at 65-3 as Swann got his 2nd victim of the innings as the batsman made a very good knock of 42 before he departed by to the pavilion.

Pic from: bbc sports

Ross Taylor and Dean Brownlie put on a partnership that gave New Zealand hope that they could bat the day out in a better position that they were at present, Brownlie then played a shot to the hands of Ian Bell which saw him out for 25 and Guptill was next to go as Swann bowling was fantastic and edged to Trott in the slips and made it 153-5.

One run was added to the score as Ross Taylor was next to go ,after Swann bowled Taylor for 70 as his resistance came to an end after 158 minutes at the crease, this now seemed to signal the nearing of the end for the Kiwi`s innings and embarrassing defeat.

The final days play of the test match saw Brendan McCullum play a stroke straight back to Broad who took a very low catch doing very well to get low enough to catch it as he went for 1. Southee was then dropped by Trott in the slips off the bowling from Swan

A bit later Swann got his "five for" as Trott took the catch this time around as Swann celebrated giving it the fist pumping as Southee departed for 38 after the bowler slogged four 4`s and two 6`s in his innings.

Umpires took the players off for bad light and then persistent rain came as the weather was gloomy and miserable now and was looking bleak whether they would come out again. Thoughts suddenly turned to whether it was a bad decision by Cook for not enforcing the follow on when they had the chance.

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Play restarted at 3pm after the skies brightened up and England thought they had Bracewell out edging behind, before the batsman immediately asked for a review straight away and got the decision overturned by the 3^rd umpire.

However that was a brief stay of execution as moments later Bell took a great catch at silly point off the bowling of Swann to give him his 6th wicket and England needed just 1 wicket for victory now and it was James Anderson who got it as Trent Boult edged to Prior behind and it brought an end to the innings and gave England the 2-0 series sweep.

Pic from: getty images

Man of the match went to Spinner Graeme Swann as the Spinner took the honour and gave special mention to Joe Root for his fantastic knocks in the game. Root also was given the Man of the Series by the New Zealand coach too.