Henry the hero for New Zealand as England bring back Stokes / Photo: Glyn KIRK - AFP
Henry the hero for New Zealand as England bring back Stokes
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 as England confirmed Ben Stokes would return as captain for the deciding third Test.
Stokes was dropped for breaching a team curfew following his side's win in the series opener at Lord's.
"Ben will be back. He'll be back as captain," said England head coach Brendon McCullum after the match.
Fast-medium bowler Henry's sensational spell of four wickets for no runs in 12 balls saw England, who were 182-5 overnight, collapse to 192-9.
Henry finished the match by bowling Jordan Cox as England, who were 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 haul in England's first-innings 5-80, gave him overall figures 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.
"I probably didn't expect things to unfold like that today," said Henry, the player of the match. With the ball, we talked about being relentless. We stuck at it and it was nice to get the rewards."
- 'Spearhead' -
New Zealand captain Tom Latham added: "We thought hitting the top of off stump repetitively was the way to go on this surface and Matt Henry is a good exponent of that...He has been a spearhead for some time."
Shortly before play started on Sunday, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that both Stokes and Gus Atkinson, also omitted this week for breaking curfew, had been withdrawn from county action with Durham and Surrey respectively.
It was a clear hint the duo would be recalled to England duty at Trent Bridge and they were each included in a 15-man squad announced later Sunday for the third Test.
But the ECB added that they both been given written warnings after breaching "specific contractual obligations" that require England players at all times to maintain the highest standards of conduct and act in the best interests of England cricket.
Nevertheless, they cleared the pair of responsibility for a violent altercation in a London nightclub with Saracens rugby player Totoa Auvaa.
The ECB said Stokes had no part in and did not witness Auvaa's two attempts to confront paceman Atkinson, whom it added was "the victim of unprovoked attacks" to which he did not retaliate.
England resumed all but beaten at 182-5, needing a further 281 runs for victory.
Their hopes of an improbable win rested with stand-in captain Joe Root, 75 not out overnight.
But Root had added just two runs to his score when he was plumb lbw to Henry.
With an England side showing five changes, including three debutants, from the one Stokes led at Lord's, a lengthy tail was exposed by Henry.
Two balls after Root's exit, the 34-year-old clean bowled Jofra Archer for a duck, with a delivery that kept low.
New batsman Matthew Fisher had made a maiden Test fifty in the first innings, but on Sunday he was clean bowled for nought by Henry.
With the next ball, the paceman had new batsman Josh Tongue edging to Daryl Mitchell in the slips for a golden duck, with England on the brink 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's, now had two in a row.
The end was not long in coming as Henry bowled Cox to seal an emphatic victory which saw both New Zealand all-rounder Glenn Phillips and Henry Nicholls, who replaced retired batting great Kane Williamson, hit hundreds.
L.Ross--CT
