ISH SODHI SURVIVES TENSE FINISH TO WIN SERIES FOR NEW ZEALAND
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| Photo credit - ESPN |
In scenes of umbrella-gnawing tension, New Zealand dug deep in adversity
to cling on for a draw in the second Test at Christchurch's bucolic Hagley
Oval, and thus secured their first series win over England since 1999, and
their first at home since 1983-84.
They were forced to do so the hard way - with fielders camped around the
bat for the entirety of the final session, and having endured a stunningly
terrible start to the day's play, when two wickets fell to Stuart Broad's first
two deliveries, including their likeliest final-day field marshall, Kane
Williamson, for a first-ball duck.
But thereafter, New Zealand found enough heroes to fill the gaps in
their ranks - not least among them, Tom Latham, whose 207-ball 83 was the
mainstay of the first two sessions, and Colin de Grandhomme, whose My Way 45
may have ended in a potentially disastrous brain-fade, but nevertheless
completed a hugely impressive all-round contest.
But in the final analysis, it was left to a brilliantly gritty
eighth-wicket stand of 37 runs in 31.2 overs between Ish Sodhi - whose
antepenultimate-over smash through midwicket for four brought up a richly
deserved fifty after he had spent 31 deliveries on 48 - and Neil Wagner, who
was eventually caught off an inside edge off the final ball of the match for 7
from 103 balls, having scarcely glanced in any direction except straight back
down the wicket.
Throughout the final session, England had believed they were in a race
against the setting sun, with the vagaries of the South Island's autumnal
weather likely to force a stoppage for bad light at any moment. But the skies
remained clear as the shadows lengthened, until at 6.02pm, with Tim Southee
marching out to replace the crestfallen Wagner, Joe Root was forced to admit
defeat as the umpires finally deemed the light to be unacceptable. England had
pushed to the bitter end of a bitterly disappointing winter, but their quest
for a first overseas victory since October 2016 will now be extended at least
until the tour of Sri Lanka in six months' time.
Throughout a gripping final day, England were given plenty reasons to
believe that they were firmly on course for a first win in seven attempts this
winter - particularly when Broad lured Jeet Raval into a limp leg-side flick to
square leg before blasting Williamson from the crease with a brute of a lifter
that grazed his splice on the way through to the keeper.
New Zealand lost two more key wickets in a one-sided first session,
including a maiden Test scalp for the left-arm spinner, Jack Leach, and went to
tea six-down with their series hopes firmly on the line.
But the decisive moment of the match seemed, surely, to have arrived
after 45 minutes of impulse-denying attrition in a tense evening session. After
living dangerously in the early stages of his innings, particularly against the
spin of Leach, de Grandhomme had settled back into a more traditional
rearguard, dutifully falling in behind the line to see off England's second new
ball and extend his seventh-wicket stand with Sodhi into a 27th over.
But he couldn't entirely supress his belligerent instincts, and having
twice biffed Broad short balls over the leg-side for four, he tried the same
trick one over later, as the extra pace of Mark Wood was brought back into the
fray. His second-ball slap ballooned off a top-edge into the hands of Leach at
fine leg, and at 219 for 7 with the light still holding firm, England had the
opening for which they had been striving.
It was the second time in the innings that Wood's muscular quick bowling
had ram-raided a wicket for England - earlier in the day, he had bluffed BJ
Watling with the same around-the-wicket line, suckering the batsman with a
surprise fuller ball as he turned his stance inside-out in full anticipation of
a bouncer.
Watling's limp reflexive flick had lobbed to James Anderson at short
backward square, to break another half-formed stand of 44 in 20 overs with New
Zealand's most fluent barnacle of the final day, Latham. And Latham too, for
all his determination, ultimately gave his innings away when well set, as he
took on the sweep with Leach finding some purchase out of the rough, and
top-edged to a diving James Vince at backward square leg.
Sodhi, however, was not about to give up the ghost as tamely as his
senior colleagues. He'd had his own moment of good fortune right at the top of
his innings, when on 0, he stabbed Leach firmly through the grasp of Mark
Stoneman at silly point, and he was later smashed a painful blow on the forearm
as he ducked into a Broad bouncer.
But in between whiles, Sodhi resolved to stand his ground against
everything that England could fling at him. Only once before in his Test
career, against Pakistan in 2014, had he batted for as many as 100 deliveries
in a single innings, and as England's desperation mounted, so his luck and
fortitude rose to meet the needs of the hour.
Wood, once again, seemed the likeliest to dynamite him from the crease -
twice in the final hour, with close catchers stationed like the points on a
nautical compass, he slammed fierce lifters into Sodhi's gloves that ballooned
to safety through backward point. Broad then lured him into a sliced drive that
flew to safety over the cordon and, in his next over, he crashed a sharp lifter
into his gloves and inches out of the reach of gully. And before he had added
to his 48 runs, Stoneman - on his knees as the straighter of two short legs -
rose too early to grab another splice-rattler that plopped inches short of his
grasp.
But if Sodhi was living dangerously, then the left-handed Wagner, better
orientated to counter the fast bowler's aggressive angles, was only too happy
to sink deeper into his trench with every delivery. He batted with the same
combative attitude that he has always brought to his bowling, never afraid to
stretch onto the front foot to counter anything full and straight, but only too
happy to drop his gloves and put his body on the line to see off the shorter
balls.
As a consequence, Wagner produced just four scoring shots in the course
of his 103-ball innings - a trio of singles and a deflection for four through
fine leg off Broad. Not even the lollipop legspin of Dawid Malan could tempt
him into an indiscretion, as he pressed his weight forward to repel all comers,
and even when Leach eventually did him on the inside edge, he retained enough
presence of mind to call for the review. In the time it took for Tim Southee to
emerge from the pavilion - after two days on his sickbed, he was not in the
ideal frame of mind for a rearguard - the umpires got together to decide enough
was enough.
The scenes at the close were reminiscent of England's own great escape
at Auckland on the 2012-13 tour, when Matt Prior and Monty Panesar had repelled
everything that New Zealand could throw at them. And England tried it all, in
particular during a four-wicket morning session that seemed to have unlocked
the contest.
In that brief period of dominance, Leach bagged Ross Taylor on the sweep
for a notable maiden Test wicket, before James Anderson suckered Henry Nicholls
with an outswinger, en route to overhauling Courtney Walsh as the most
over-worked fast bowler in Test history. No doubt, he was feeling every one of
those 30,074 deliveries by the close.
New
Zealand 278 and 256 for 8 (Latham 83, Sodhi 56*) drew with England 307 and 352
for 9 dec (Vince 76, Stoneman 60, Root 54, de Grandhomme 4-94)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
SOURCE: ESPNCRICINFO
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