Leeds, (United Kingdom): Trent Boult and Tim Southee led a New Zealand recovery after Adam Lyth scored his maiden Test century and Alastair Cook became England’s all-time leading Test run-scorer at Headingley on Saturday.England were cruising on the second day of the second Test while left-handed openers Lyth (107) and skipper Cook (75) were sharing a first-wicket stand of 177.
But the departure of Lyth, needlessly run out shortly before the advent of the new ball, sparked a slump that saw four wickets fall late in the day. At stumps, England were 253 for five in reply to New Zealand’s first innings 350, a deficit of 97 runs.The new ball saw left-armer Boult take two wickets for 10 runs in four overs and Southee one for seven, also in four overs. Lyth, 27, was Cook’s sixth opening partner since the retirement of former captain Andrew Strauss, with Nick Compton, Joe Root, Michael Carberry, Sam Robson and Jonathan Trott all given a chance in the problem position.
However, Lyth went some way to making the berth his own ahead of the Ashes series starting in July. Saturday saw England’s first century opening stand in a home Test since Cook and Strauss added 186 against India at Edgbaston on 2011. Lyth had managed just seven and 12 on debut during England’s 124-run win in the first of this two-Test series at Lord’s.
Earlier, Cook overtook Gooch’s previous England record of 8,900 Test runs when he square-drove Southee for four that gave him the score of 32 he needed to surpass his mentor’s mark.
The economical Craig removed Cook, although it needed a New Zealand review to have the skipper lbw after he missed an intended sweep. Cook batted for nearly four hours and faced 187 balls including a dozen boundaries.
Scorecard
New Zealand (1st innings): M. Guptill c Bell b Anderson 0, T. Latham c Root b Broad 84, K. Williamson c Buttler b Anderson 0, R. Taylor lbw b Broad 20, B. McCullum c Wood b Stokes 41, BJ Watling b Wood 14, L. Ronchi c Anderson b Broad 88, M. Craig (not out) 41, T. Southee c Lyth b Wood 1, M. Henry c Buttler b Broad 27, T. Boult c Lyth b Broad 15. Extras (b-4, lb-14, nb-1) 19. Total (in 72.1 overs) 350.
FoW: 1-2, 2-2, 3-68, 4-123, 5-144, 6-264, 7-265, 8-281, 9-310.
Bowling: Anderson 13-3-43-2, Broad 17.1-0-109-5, Wood 14-4-62-2, Stokes 17-4-70-1, Ali 11-3-48-0.
England (1st innings): A. Lyth (run out) 107, A. Cook lbw b Craig 75, G. Ballance b Boult 29, I. Bell (not out) 12, J. Root c Ronchi b Southee 1, B. Stokes c Craig b Boult 6, J. Buttler (not out) 6. Extras (b-14, w-3) 17. Total (for five wickets in 88 overs) 253.
FoW: 1-177, 2-215, 3-238, 4-239, 5-247.
Bowling: Boult 23-4-63-2, Southee 23-4-57-1, Henry 18-4-76-0, Craig 22-10-38-1, Williamson 2-1-5-0.
