new zealand The cricket team has given an excellent performance against England in the Hamilton Test and has set a huge target of 658 runs for England. By the third day of this match, England had scored 18 runs after losing 2 wickets. That means, England now needs 640 runs to win.
This match has reached an exciting turn for cricket lovers. While New Zealand has put England under pressure with their batting, England will have to bat phenomenally in their second innings if they want to win this Test.
New Zealand’s brilliant innings: Williamson’s century
In the second innings of New Zealand, captain Kane Williamson performed brilliantly and played an unbeaten inning of 156 runs. This was the 33rd Test century of his career, and with this century he also created a new record. Williamson scored a century in his fifth consecutive Test match in Hamilton, and became the first batsman to score 5 consecutive centuries at this ground. With his historic innings, New Zealand’s score reached 453 runs, setting a huge target for England.
Apart from this, other New Zealand batsmen also played their roles. Will Young and Daryl Mitchell both scored 60-60 runs, while Mitchell Santner scored 49 runs and Rachin Ravindra played important innings of 44 runs. Tom Blundell also returned unbeaten after scoring 44 runs. Jacob Bethel took maximum three wickets in England’s bowling. Apart from this, Ben Stokes and Shoaib Bashir took two wickets each.
England’s weak innings
England had a disappointing start, especially in the first innings, when they were all out for just 143 runs. England’s batsmen completely surrendered to New Zealand’s bowlers. Joe Root, who is England’s most experienced batsman, scored 32 runs in 42 balls, but he could not get his team out of trouble. At the same time, captain Ben Stokes scored 27 runs in 43 balls and Ollie Pope contributed by scoring 24 runs in 42 balls.
Matt Henry bowled brilliantly for New Zealand and took 4 wickets for 48 runs in 13.4 overs. Apart from this, William O’Rourke and Mitchell Santner took three wickets each and wrapped up England’s innings quickly.
New Zealand’s strong start on the first day
By the end of the first day’s play on Saturday, New Zealand had scored 315 runs after losing 9 wickets. During this, Mitchell Santner returned unbeaten on 50 runs. In the first day’s play, New Zealand’s batsmen batted aggressively against England’s bowlers. Top batsmen like Tom Latham, Will Young and Kane Williamson made important contributions.
England team’s performance
The England team seems to be disappointing to a great extent with its performance in this test. The key batsmen of the team did not perform as per expectations. Famous batsmen like Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Ollie Pope played only short innings, while England’s bowling was also not that effective against New Zealand. Looking at the situation of England, it can be said that they will have to use all their strength to make a great comeback in this match.
What will happen next day?
Now the question is what strategy England will have to adopt to achieve the huge target of 658 runs. This will be a very difficult challenge for the England batsmen, as the New Zealand bowlers have already demonstrated their ability brilliantly. England captain Ben Stokes will have to motivate his team to chase a historic target by mentally strengthening them.
New Zealand’s bowling has experienced bowlers like Matt Henry, Tim Southee and Mitchell Santner, who can maintain pressure on the England batsmen. Also, New Zealand captain Kane Williamson has proved with his batting skills in this test that he can lead his team to victory even under the pressure of big matches.
Playing-11 of both the teams
New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Will Young, Rachin Ravindra, Kane Williamson, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Mitchell Santner, Tom Blundell, Matt Henry, Tim Southee and Will O’Rourke.
England: Ben Stokes (captain), Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethel, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope (wicketkeeper), Matthew Potts, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse and Shoaib Bashir.
What will happen in future?
As this match progresses, it will be interesting to see whether England’s batsmen will be able to recover from their poor start and achieve New Zealand’s huge target, or whether New Zealand’s excellent bowling will help them achieve a decisive victory against England. This test match is an exciting moment for cricket lovers, and history has every chance of being made in this match.
New Zealand have set a huge target for England in the Hamilton Test, and England now face a big test. However, the England team needs to improve its batting, especially after the innings in which it was all out for only 143 runs. Now it remains to be seen how England faces this challenge.
