England edge closer to victory

Stuart Broad, left, produced a stunning catch to remove Brendon McCullum
28 May 2013

England took two of the four wickets they needed to wrap up a 2-0 Investec Series win over New Zealand before rain forced an early lunch at Headingley.

England began the day 309 ahead with the tourists on 158 for six, but bad weather accounted for 45 minutes at the start of play and another 28 before the interval.

Less than an hour was possible in the middle, with Stuart Broad and Graeme Swann taking a wicket apiece to bring the hosts to the brink of victory.

There were plenty of runs too, Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell sharing a boundary-laden partnership before the former was dismissed for 38.

Swann had two balls to complete the over that was interrupted by bad light on Monday and then it was over to Broad.

His first over was solid enough and Swann mustered a stifled appeal for lbw against Brendon McCullum at his next visit. But it was Broad who made the breakthrough, taking the key scalp of captain McCullum.

A distracted McCullum had pulled away moments before, with Broad continuing his delivery and taking out off stump despite it being a dead ball. There was no recourse next up, McCullum getting the toe of the bat to a low full toss and seeing Broad get down quickly to gather a fine return catch.

That left Southee and Bracewell together at the crease and they quickly went on the attack, the former lifting Broad back over his head for four and then greeting Steven Finn's arrival by pulling his first delivery for six.

He had 24 when Jonathan Trott put down a tough one-handed chance off Swann at slip and he cashed in by slog-sweeping the spinner for his second maximum. Bracewell was quick to join in, driving Finn through the covers and then adding a six of his own with a powerful pull.

Southee's fun ended when he nicked Swann low to Trott's left and this time he clung on to a smart catch, ending a frenzied 56-run stand. Bracewell was 19 not out and Neil Wagner yet to score when the umpires brought the players in.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in