Home > Cricket > Reuters > Report
England in charge as Kiwis wilt
June 07, 2004 10:45 IST
England took total control of the second Test on a wearing Headingley pitch on Sunday after New Zealand collapsed from 75 for one to 102 for 5 in their second innings at the close of day four.
The tourists were still 15 runs adrift of England, who made 526 in their first innings, and reeling from the news spinner Daniel Vettori had suffered a suspected hamstring tear. Scott Styris was on seven while Jacob Oram had made four.
England had earlier piled on the runs after some sloppy New Zealand bowling with Geraint Jones notching his maiden Test century from only 146 balls and Andrew Flintoff weighing in with a composed 94.
Steve Harmison and Matthew Hoggard did the damage with the ball for England, taking advantage of a deteriorating pitch.
Nathan Astle (8) was trapped leg before wicket by Hoggard and nightwatchman Daryl Tuffey (7) lasted seven balls before spooning a simple catch to Jones off Harmison.
Opener Mark Richardson was out for 40, gloving a steep Hoggard ball to Jones and Brendon McCullum, promoted to three, was caught acrobatically by Marcus Trescothick for 20 after a good length ball from Harmison.
Stephen Fleming, back as opener because of Michael Papps's broken finger, clipped a Flintoff delivery to Andrew Strauss at short leg when on 11.
England, resuming on 248 for four in the morning session, took advantage of New Zealand's bowling deficiencies, which were exacerbated when Vettori was forced from the field with a hamstring strain.
Jones, playing in only his third Test, hit a flurry of ambitious strokes but his luck finally ended when he cut a Chris Cairns delivery into the safe hands of Fleming to be out for exactly 100.
GROWING MATURITY
Flintoff displayed his growing maturity with a cultured innings before he attempted to strike a six to reach his century but was caught at mid-off by Chris Martin off Styris.
The Lancashire all-rounder, so often an all-or-nothing attacking batsman in the past, relied on timing rather than brute force in a measured innings.
New Zealand cleaned up the England tail with relative ease and will wish they had bowled in the same areas to England's better batsmen.
Flintoff put on 99 for the fifth wicket with Graham Thorpe, who made a watchful 34 before he was bowled by a swinging full-length delivery from Martin.
Vettori was brought on after lunch to try to stem the runs by bowling at leg stump but the ploy failed to work and he later hobbled off.
Tuffey also looked less than fully fit and Oram is unable to bowl through a side strain.
New Zealand badly missed main strike bowler Shane Bond, and although he took the field as a substitute fielder, a back problem has prevented him bowling during the tour.
Much of the first day of the match was lost to rain. England lead the three match series 1-0.
Scoreboard:
New Zealand first innings: 409 (S.Fleming 97, M.Papps 86, B.McCullum 54; S.Harmison 4-74)
England first innings: (overnight 248-4)
M.Trescothick b Styris 132
A.Strauss c Tuffey b Vettori 62
M.Butcher lbw b Vettori 4
M.Vaughan c Fleming b Styris 13
G.Thorpe b Martin 34
A.Flintoff c Martin b Styris 94
G.Jones c Fleming b Cairns 100
A.Giles c Fleming b Martin 21
M.Hoggard c McCallum b Tuffey 4
M.Saggers c sub b Cairns 0
S.Harmison not out 0
Extras (b-25 lb-21 w-3 nb-13) 62
Total (all out, 133.1 overs) 526
Fall of wickets: 1-153, 2-174, 3-229, 4-240, 5-339, 6-457, 7-491, 8-526, 9-526.
Bowling: Tuffey 26.1-7-88-1, Martin 30-9-127-2, Styris 27-5-88-3, Cairns 27-6-94-2, Vettori 23-2-83-2
New Zealand second innings:
M.Richardson c Jones b Hoggard 40
S.Fleming c Strauss b Flintoff 11
B.McCullum c Trescothick b Harmison 20
N.Astle lbw b Hoggard 8
S.Styris not out 7
D.Tuffey c Jones b Harmison 7
J.Oram not out 4
Extras (lb-4 nb-1) 5
Total (for five wickets, 34 overs) 102
To bat: M.Papps, C.Cairns, D.Vettori, C.Martin.
Fall of wickets: 1-39, 2-75, 3-77, 4-84, 5-91.
Bowling: Hoggard 11-4-43-2 (nb-1), Harmison 12-5-34-2, Flintoff 6-0-16-1, Saggers 5-3-5-0.