England beat New Zealand again to secure Test series

England romped to a second comfortable victory over New Zealand in two weeks to secure a Test series triumph yesterday with skipper Ben Stokes apparently enjoying a Midas touch with his every decision turning to gold.
Stokes delivered the coup de grace at Wellington’s Basin Reserve himself, coming on to take the last three wickets at a cost of five runs to dismiss New Zealand for 259 and wrap up the 323-run victory with more than two days to spare.
Seamers Chris Woakes, Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson all played crucial roles in the victory, the latter with a rare hat-trick on Saturday to help scuttle New Zealand’s first innings for 125.
Shoaib Bashir stepped up to remove Tom Blundell after the New Zealand wicketkeeper had marshalled the home rearguard with a defiant 115 on a surface that rarely offers anything for spinners this early in the season.
With the bat, the controversial selection of Jacob Bethell at number three paid dividends in only his second test with an innings of 96, while Ollie Pope thrived with a key knock of 66 despite being dropped down the order as stand-in wicketkeeper.
Most of all, it was the brilliant innings of 123 from Player of the Match Harry Brook on a tricky surface that laid the foundation for England’s biggest win by runs over the Black Caps, and a first series triumph in New Zealand since 2008.
“You look down that scorecard, there’s one guy that took it away from us,” said New Zealand captain Tom Latham. “Harry played a fantastic innings there. Credit where credit’s due, I thought that was a fantastic innings.”
Stokes agreed the fifth-wicket partnership between Brooks and Pope that took England from 43-4 to 280 in the first innings had been crucial.
“Scoring 280 and having five New Zealand wickets at the end of day one really set this game up for us,” the New Zealand-born all-rounder said. “But a lot of that has got to go down to the way that Harry Brook and Ollie Pope took on the New Zealand bowlers and didn’t allow their very skilful bowlers to run up and put the ball where they wanted to.”
Yesterday, England had resumed on a blustery morning on 378-5 looking to quickly inflate their already imposing lead of 533 before sending the Blacks Caps in to bat.
Stokes was at the crease with Joe Root, who had been short of runs and is perhaps the least natural player of the “Bazball” style of aggressive batting England have played under coach Brendon McCullum.
Class is permanent, however, and the prolific 33-year-old even showed a real flash of creativity to secure his 36th Test century with a glorious reverse-ramp for four off seamer Will O’Rourke.
“He thought it was a good idea to scoop a six-foot-nine giant bowling rockets but it came off, it was just awesome,” chuckled Stokes. “He’s desperate to do well for this team. He knows how important it is. When he does well, we generally do well.”
After Root edged behind for 106, Stokes, who was unbeaten on 49, immediately declared for 427-6 to present the Blacks Caps with a mammoth target of 583.
“Brydon Carse and Gus Atkinson have been so good for us in the time that they’ve been out there playing for England,” Stokes said of the two seamers, who both made their debuts this year.
The third Test in Hamilton starts on Saturday.
BRIEF SCORES (Wellington Test, Day 3)England 280 (Brook 123, Pope 66, Smith 4-86) and 427 for 6 dec (Root 106, Bethell 96, Duckett 92, Brook 55) beat New Zealand 125 (Atkinson 4-31, Carse 4-46) and 259 (Blundell 115, Stokes 3-5) by 323 runs