England was trailing New Zealand by 111 runs with seven wickets in hand at the close of the second day’s play of the second test against New Zealand at Headingly on Saturday.
Replying to New Zealand’s score of 350 all out, England had cruised to 239 for the loss of three wickets in 81 overs.
Ian Bell and Joe Root were at the crease on 11 and 1 respectively. England had lost the wickets of Adam Lyth run out for 107 with fifteen fours; skipper Alastair Cook for 75 with 12 boundaries and Gary Balance for 29 with six boundaries. For New Zealand, spinner M.D. Craig and fast bowler Trent Boult were the wicket takers.
Earlier, Cook and Lyth put on a century opening stand to help re-establish a sense of equilibrium in the second Investec Test.
Cook overhauled the run-scoring mark of Graham Gooch, moving to 13th on the list among all Test run-scorers. Gooch’s 8900-run mark had stood for almost 22 years.
Lyth, playing his second Test, put up an assured display of batsmanship
rior to the England innings, New Zealand’s aggressive approach catapulted them to 350 in their first innings, the last two wickets adding 93 runs. For England, Stuart Broad claimed five wickets for 109 in 17.1 overs. Jimmy Anderson and M A Wood claimed two wickets each, while Ben Stokes took one wicket. (ANI)