England off-spinner destroys Kiwis after Steven Finn rocks top order
Graeme Swann took four wickets as New Zealand collapsed on the third day of the second and final Test at Headingley yesterday.
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Destroyer: England spinner Graeme Swann appeals against a New Zealand batsman at Leeds yesterday. PIC/Getty Images
New Zealand’s latest batting failure saw them dismissed for 174 on the stroke of tea and that left them 180 runs behind England’s first innings 354.
Off-spinner Swann took four for 42 in nine overs after fast bowler Steven Finn had rocked the top order on his way to three for 36.
But although England captain Alastair Cook was in a position to enforce the follow-on - New Zealand needed to reach 205 and be within 150, rather than 200, of the hosts’ first innings following Friday’s first day washout to be certain of avoiding it - he decided to bat again.
New Zealand had been shot out for just 68 in their second innings during a crushing 170-run defeat in the first match of this two-Test series at Lord’s last week.
But they made almost as many for the first wicket until Peter Fulton, trying to turn Finn legside, got a leading edge and was caught and bowled by the fast bowler for 28 to leave New Zealand 55 for one.
Then a superb over to Hamish Rutherford, the other opening batsman, saw Finn beat the left-hander three times in a row outside off-stump. Rutherford did not heed the warnings and a loose drive saw him edge Finn to Ian Bell in the gully for 27.
Finn had taken took two wickets for one run in 16 balls to leave New Zealand 62 for two at lunch.u00a0Ross Taylor, nought not out at lunch, fell for six after playing on to a fast Finn delivery that cramped him for room as he tried to defend off the back foot.
And 72 for three became 79 for four when Swann, who returned to Test cricket at Lord's following an elbow injury, struck with his sixth delivery yesterday. He bowled Dean Brownlie for two, a sharp off-break beating the batsman between bat and pad.
Martin Guptill managed just one before he fell in similar fashion to Brownlie, with Swann, turning the ball in the footmarks created by New Zealand’s left-arm seamers.
Two balls later Kane Williamson (13) was lbw to Swann on an England review. u00a0NZ captain Brendon McCullum and Tim Southee staunched the flow of wickets with a seventh-wicket stand of 37 in 41 balls.u00a0
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