England beat New Zealand in second Test: Key stats
England hammered New Zealand in the second Test on Day 5 to pocket a 2-0 lead in the series. The visitors managed 553 in the first innings before England cut the trail to 14 runs. In the second innings, NZ batted well to put up a commanding total. Chasing 299, England steered to a five-wicket win, riding on Jonny Bairstow's rip-roaring ton. Here's more.
Centuries from Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell powered NZ to 553. In response, the hosts managed 539, courtesy of hundreds from Joe Root and Ollie Pope. For NZ, seamer Trent Boult (5/106) stood out. Later, the Tom Latham-led side added 284 runs, with fifties from Will Young, Conway, and Mitchell. England showed a hostile approach to wind up the chase with ease.
Anderson snared five wickets in the second Test. He has become the first-ever fast bowler to take 650 wickets in Test cricket. He is presently the third-highest wicket-taker in the format after Muthiah Muralitharan (800) and Shane Warne (708). Among fast bowlers, former Australian fast bowler Glenn McGrath has the second-most Test wickets (563). Overall, Anderson has 651 wickets in 171 Tests.
Boult took three wickets on Day 3 (Zak Crawley, Pope, and Bairstow). The left-arm seamer, on Day 4, got rid of Root and Matty Potts to complete his 10th five-wicket haul in the longest format. He has become the seventh Kiwi bowler to register at least 10 Test five-fors. Boult registered figures of 5/106 and 3/94 in the match. He has 313 Test wickets.
Young managed scores of 47 and 53. He slammed his sixth half-century in the format. He has raced to 544 runs in 11 Tests. Meanwhile, Conway put up scores of 46 and 52 at Trent Bridge. He brought up his seventh 50-plus score in nine Tests. He now has 881 runs at 55.06. Conway now averages 49.30 in England (one hundred, three fifties).
Mitchell piled up a mouth-dropping 190 off 318 deliveries in the first innings. It was a knock of substance from the right-handed batter, who slammed 23 fours and four sixes. It is his highest score in Tests. He followed with 62* in the second innings. He now has 776 Test runs at 59.69. Versus England, he has now racked up 452 runs at 90.40.
Blundell seems to have settled down as a wicket-keeper batter for the Kiwis. In the first innings, he smashed 14 fours in his knock of 106. It was another valiant show from the 31-year-old, who had dispatched a gutsy 96 in the Lord's Test. He then lodged a decent 24 in the second innings. Blundell has now raced to 1,049 Test runs at 37.46.
Root toyed with the Kiwi seamers to rack up an aggressive-looking 176 in the first innings. He smashed a four off Daryl Mitchell to bring up his 27th Test ton. Interestingly, it is his 11th score of 170 or more in red-ball cricket. Root was dismissed cheaply (3) later on in the game. He now has 10,194 runs in 119 Tests at 49.97.
Root (10,194) has surpassed Younis Khan (10,099) and Sunil Gavaskar (10,122) to be ranked 12th among the highest run-getters in Tests. Earlier in the series, he became the 14th batter to complete 10,000 runs in Tests.
Pope had a lucky escape in the first inning when Daryl Mitchell dropped him on 42. He went on to slam his career-best score of 145 from 239 deliveries, hitting 13 fours and three sixes. It was his second Test century. He clocked 18 off 34 deliveries during the fifth day's play. Pope has now compiled 1,212 runs in 25 Tests.
Though dismissed for a score of 8 in the first innings, Bairstow made up for it, slamming a 92-ball 136 to hand England a much-coveted win. He obliterated the Kiwi attack to register his ninth Test ton and first against NZ. He hammered 14 fours and seven sixes during his stay in the middle. Bairstow has now raced to 4,962 runs in 85 Tests.
The chase wouldn't have been possible without the hard-hitting performance from Bairstow and Ben Stokes. The duo added 179 runs off 121 deliveries for the fifth wicket. Stokes, who had struck a 33-ball 46 earlier, clobbered 75* off 70 deliveries to snatch a five-wicket win for England. With his 28th Test fifty, the all-rounder raced to 5,237 runs in Tests.
