Delhi: The second match of the three-match Test series between New Zealand and England was played at the Basin Reserve in Wellington from 6 December, in which England performed brilliantly and defeated New Zealand by 323 runs and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series. Meanwhile, New Zealand is being captained by Tom Latham, while the command of England is in the hands of Ben Stokes.
New Zealand captain Tom Latham won the toss and decided to bowl first. England had a bad start and four of their batsmen returned to the pavilion for 43 runs, but Harry Brook (123) and Ollie Pope (66) handled the innings and took the team’s score to 280. For New Zealand, Nathan Smith took 4 wickets, while William O’Rourke and Matt Henry took 3 and 2 wickets respectively.
New Zealand’s first innings was reduced to 125 runs. Kane Williamson (37) and Tom Latham (17) scored some important runs for the team, but the rest of the batsmen could not contribute much. For England, Brayden Carse and Gus Atkinson took 4-4 wickets.
After this, England scored 427 runs in their second innings and gave New Zealand a huge target of 582 runs. In this innings, Joe Root scored a brilliant 106 runs, while Jacob Bethel was out on 96 runs. For New Zealand, Matt Henry and Tim Southee took 2-2 wickets.
While chasing the target, New Zealand again had a bad start and four wickets fell for 59 runs. However, Tom Blundell (115) tried to control the team by scoring a century, but the rest of the batsmen could not support him. The entire team was reduced to 259 runs. For England, Ben Stokes took 3 wickets and Chris Woakes, Brayden Carse and Shoaib Bashir took 2 wickets each.
Now the third and last match of the series will be played from December 14 at Seddon Park in Hamilton.