England crush New Zealand to claim series despite Blundell defiance

The winds came howling into Wellington off the Cook Strait but they were only blowing one way. England rolled through New Zealand inside three days at Basin Reserve to secure their first Test series win in the country since 2007-08. They were buffeted by a blistering hundred from Tom Blundell but could not be knocked off course.

New Zealand had two notional targets: score 583 to win or survive almost nine sessions for a draw. Neither was a hot ticket, especially after they had shipped four wickets inside the first 14 overs of their innings. The card was given some respectability by Blundell’s counterattack, although it didn’t make much of a dent in the margin of victory. New Zealand’s next-highest score was the 42 contributed by Nathan Smith at No. 8.

Sitting on an already formidable lead, England made a brief show of batting on, thereby enabling Joe Root to notch his 36th Test hundred, before getting down to the business of bowling out New Zealand for a second time. Chris Woakes and Brydon Carse made the initial incisions, before Ben Stokes himself finished things off with a trio of short-ball dismissals against the tail.

The main resistance came from Blundell, who crashed 13 fours and five sixes in an innings that might have borne comparison with Nathan Astle’s famous 2002 Christchurch assault had he sustained it for another hour. Shoaib Bashir came in for severe punishment but was the bowler to eventually see Blundell off, albeit plenty of credit should go to Ben Duckett, who anticipated Blundell’s attempt to scoop and ran around from slip to intercept it down the leg side at the second attempt, after palming the ball up.

Brief scores:
England 280 (Harry Brook 123, Ollie Pope 66, Nathan Smith 4-86, William O’Rourke 3-49, Matt Henry 2-43) and 427 for 6 dec (Joe Root 106, Jacob Bethell 96, Ben Duckett 92, Harry Brook 55, Ben Stokes 49*; Tim Southee 2-72, Matt Henry 2-100) beat New Zealand 125 (Kane Williamson 37; Gus Atkinson 4-31, Brydon Carse 4-46) and259 (Tom Blundell 115, Nathan Smith 42; Ben Stokes 3-05, Chris Woakes2-20, Brydon Carse 2-53, Shoaib Bashir 2-110) by 323 runs

[Cricinfo]