Henry the hero as New Zealand level England series in style / Photo: © AFP
Henry the hero as New Zealand level England series in style
Matt Henry did the damage as New Zealand thrashed England by 253 runs in the second Test at the Oval on Sunday for a series-levelling victory after the hosts opened up the possibility of Ben Stokes returning to international cricket
Fast-medium bowler Henry's sensational spell of four wickets for no runs in 12 balls saw England, 182-5 overnight, collapse to 192-9.
Henry finished the match by bowling Jordan Cox as England, chasing a record-breaking 463 to win, were dismissed for 209.
New Zealand needed just 48 minutes play on Sunday's fifth day at the Oval to square the three-match series at 1-1 ahead of next week's decider in Nottingham.
Henry's superb second-innings return of 6-29, allied to his five-wicket return in England's first-innings 5-80, gave him an overall return of 11-109.
Henry's maiden 10-wicket haul in a Test was also the best by any New Zealand bowler against England, surpassing Dion Nash's 11-169 at Lord's back in 1994.
Shortly before play started on Sunday's, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that both Stokes and Gus Atkinson had been withdrawn from county action with Durham and Surrey respectively.
It was the clearest hint the duo will be recalled to Test-match duty at Trent Bridge after being stood down this week for breaching a team curfew following England's 115-run win in the first Test at Lord's earlier this month.
England resumed all but beaten at 182-5, needing a further 281 runs to reach a record-breaking target of 463.
The highest winning fourth-innings total in 149 years of Test cricket is West Indies' 418-7 against Australia at St John's in 2003.
England hopes of an improbable win rested with stand-in captain Joe Root, 75 not out overnight after joining India great Sachin Tendulkar as the only batsman to have made 14,000 Test runs on Saturday.
But Root had added just two runs to his score when he was plumb lbw to Henry, with a rejigged England side showing five changes, including three debutants, from the one Stokes led at Lord's seeing a lengthy tail exposed by the New Zealand spearhead.
Two balls after Root's exit, the 34-year-old clean bowled Jofra Archer for a duck, the batsman having no chance with a delivery that kept low before smashing into the stumps.
New batsman Matthew Fisher had made a maiden Test fifty in the first innings of this match.
But on Sunday he was clean bowled for nought by Henry and next ball the 34-year-old paceman had new batsman Josh Tongue edging to Daryl Mitchell in the slips for a golden duck, with England on the brink of defeat at 192-9.
A double-wicket maiden (a bowler removing two batsmen in the same over without conceding a run) is rare in Test cricket, but Henry, hampered by back spasms at Lord, now had two in a row.
The end was not long in coming, Henry bowling Cox to seal an emphatic victory that saw both New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips and Henry Nicholls, replacing retired great Kane Williamson, hit hundreds.
B.Johnson--VC
