A day that Belonged to James Anderson - England v New Zealand 2nd Test Match Day 1 Report

A day that Belonged to James Anderson – England v New Zealand 2nd Test Match Day 1 Report: After a fantastic game at Lord’s in the opening rubber which saw England’s superb comeback to win the match, the rain-played spoilsport as the first day of the second test was delayed for two hours. English skipper Alistair Cook won the toss and invited the visitors to bat first, with overcast conditions into play, this was a good toss to win for the local captain. New Zealand opted to add an extra batsman in expense of all-rounder Corey Anderson to give Luke Ronchi his first test cap. This means with Walting’s injury in last game, he would purely be playing as a batsman with Ronchi holding the keeping job.

Teams:

England XI

Alastair Cook (capt),  Adam Lyth,  Gary Ballance,  Ian Bell,  Joe Root,  Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler (wk),  Moeen Ali, Mark Wood, Stuart Broad,  James Anderson

New Zealand XI

Tom Latham, Martin Guptill, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor,  Brendon McCullum (capt), Bj Watling, Luke Ronchi (wk),  Mark Craig, Matt Henry, Tim Southee, Trent Boult

After the two-hours delay due to rain, the Day-1 of the second test witnessed some fine bowling as English bowling spearhead James Anderson struck in his second over to remove opener Martin Guptill to complete his 400^th Test wicket. Two balls later Anderson bowled another beauty of a delivery and extracted an edge from Kane Williamson behind the wicket, and he walked back for a duck. With rain playing hide-and-seek for most part, bowling side had the upper hand in the game combining with the overcast conditions.

With the Kiwis struggling at 2-2 they needed someone to stay at the wicket and bat for long hours. Latham who was joined by Ross Taylor started the rescue work for New Zealand. The left-hander was looking at complete easy while facing the on-top English bowling. And played some superb eye-catching stokes to take the visitors score forward. Ross Taylor also joined Latham to play some good looking drives, but soon his trademark poor foot movement to get trapped LBW in front of the wickets to give fiery Broad his first of the match.

With Kiwis relaying on 68/3, Skipper Brendon McCullum comes in and straightaway started playing in his own merry ways, with a six on the very first ball. McCullum smashed the England bowlers all over the park. In between Latham notched up his first fifty of the series. The Kiwis skipper was looking on full flow with ball hitting sweet part of his bat as he rose to 40s in very quick time.

And as they say destiny has it all, McCullum was dismissed on the very first ball after the tea break for 41 off 27 balls. Stokes grabbed the big fish. BJ Watling came in to support Latham and played few good shorts but was removed from an absolute beauty by Mark Wood. A ball which would please any fast bowler, he hit it on good length and swung it back into the right hander as the ball sneak between Bat-pad and kissed the off-stump on its way.

In walked the debutant Luke Ronchi to the crease and straightaway started playing positively. Ronchi struck first ball of his test cricket for a boundary. And didn’t look back playing freely to take the attack on England bowlers.  He came as a survivor for the Kiwis to take the New Zealand’s score forward with the set Tom Latham.  He brought his maiden test fifty in just 37 balls playing some top shots. Meanwhile in the course of the game Tom Latham who was looking fluent was dropped twice in two balls to frustrate the opposition captain. Latham though couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities as opener was caught at slips in Broad’s for a well compile 84 followed by  Ronchi miss-timed a pull shot to give Broad his third scalp. Later, Southee too was dismissed early trying to hook one but end up edging it to Lyth at mid-wicket.  Mark Craig and Matt Henry stayed on the wicket assuring no more trouble to the visitors at stumps day-1.

In the end it proved to be a fantastic day of Test match cricket. And only 65 overs have been played before the England players walk off. This was his day as Anderson reached the landmark of 400 Test wickets – the first Englishman to do so.

It fell to Latham and 34-year old debutant Ronchi to amass a healthy partnership and thankfully the duo responded with ease. Tom Latham looked all solid until he got to his fifty but he looked scratchy post tea.

New Zealand was 2 for 2, so 297 for 8 is a good recovery. But taking eight wickets in 65 overs isn’t bad, either. All-in-all it was a great day of test cricket with both bat and ball dominating the preceding, starting with England’s top-class bowling followed by some master-class act from Latham and Ronchi.

BRIEF SCORES:

New Zealand 297/8 in 65 overs

(Tom Latham 84 (180), Luke Ronchi 88 (70), Brendon McCullum 41 (27)

Stuart Board 3-83, James Amderson 2-43, Mark Wood 2-62)