Matt Henry produced one of the great fast bowling performances in recent Test history to dismantle England at the Oval on 21 June, taking 11 wickets in the match as New Zealand won by 253 runs to level the three-match series at 1-1 ahead of next week’s decider in Nottingham.
England resumed the fifth day on 182 for five, needing a further 281 runs to reach an improbable target of 463. Any lingering hope rested with stand-in captain Joe Root, who had finished the fourth day unbeaten on 75 after becoming only the second batsman in history, alongside Sachin Tendulkar, to reach 14,000 Test runs. Root added just two more before Henry trapped him plumb lbw, triggering a collapse of four wickets for 10 runs in 12 balls.
Two balls after removing Root, Henry clean bowled Jofra Archer for a duck with a delivery that kept low and crashed into the stumps. Matthew Fisher, who had made a maiden Test fifty in the first innings, was bowled for nought next ball, before Josh Tongue edged to Daryl Mitchell in the slips without scoring. Henry had now produced two consecutive double-wicket maidens, an extraordinarily rare feat in Test cricket. Jordan Cox was the final wicket to fall as England were dismissed for 209, ending the match inside 48 minutes of play on the final day.
Henry’s second-innings figures of six for 29, combined with five for 80 in the first innings, gave him match figures of 11 for 109. It was his maiden 10-wicket haul in Test cricket and the best figures by any New Zealand bowler against England, surpassing Dion Nash’s 11 for 169 at Lord’s in 1994.
New Zealand’s victory was built on hundreds from Glenn Phillips and Henry Nicholls, the latter having stepped in to replace retired great Kane Williamson.
The match was also overshadowed by off-field developments. Shortly before play began, the England and Wales Cricket Board confirmed that Ben Stokes and Gus Atkinson had been withdrawn from county action with Durham and Surrey respectively, the clearest signal yet that both will be recalled for the deciding Test at Trent Bridge after being stood down for breaching a team curfew following England’s first-Test victory at Lord’s.
