England cricket team has now come to know the pain of failing the exam by a single mark. If the test is tough by one run difference… aha! Life seems to have come back. This is the feeling of the New Zealand team now. A perfect suspense thriller, the second Test between England and New Zealand gave the red cricket fans a lot of fun. New Zealand, who were defeated by England in the first Test at home, won the second Test by 1 run to level the series.
In the first innings, the follow-on player gave an excellent comeback and got a thrilling victory. England declared 435/8 in the first innings. New Zealand were bowled out for 209 in the first innings and had to play the follow-on…
But in the second innings, Kane Williamson scored 132, Tom Blundell 90, Tom Latham 83, Devon Conway 61, Darl Mitchell 54, and New Zealand made a huge score of 483 runs. England, who played the fourth innings with a target of 257 runs, were bowled out for 256 runs in 74.2 overs and lost by 1 run.
Joe Root, who scored an unbeaten century in the first innings, scored 95 runs off 113 balls with 8 fours and 3 sixes and became the top scorer for England. Jack Crawley scored 24, Ben Ducklett 33, Ollie Robinson 2, Ollie Pope 14 while young sensation Harry Brooke was run out without facing a ball.
With the loss of 5 wickets for 80 runs, captain Ben Stokes, who put aside the concept of baseball, preferred to save the wicket. Ben Stokes, who bowled 116 balls, was dismissed for 33 runs with 6 fours. Ben Fox scored 35, Stuart Broad scored 11 runs and James Anderson scored 4 runs to end England’s innings.
New Zealand bowler Neil Wagner took 4 wickets, Tim Southee took 3 wickets and Matt Henry took 2 wickets. This is the second defeat for the England team under the captaincy of Ben Stokes. New Zealand became the second team to win by 1 run. Earlier in 1993 West Indies won the Test against Australia by 1 run.
New Zealand became the second team after 2000 to win the follow-on game. Earlier in 2001, Team India had a follow-on victory over Australia.
