Duckett’s century, Bethel established his feet… England’s comeback on the second day against New Zealand

New Delhi. Host England has made a brilliant comeback in the third and decisive match of the ongoing Test series against New Zealand at Trent Bridge. The Kiwi team scored 438 runs in its first innings, in response to which England scored 223 runs after losing 2 wickets by the end of the second day. From here England is 215 runs behind. After winning the toss and opting to bat, the New Zealand team got a strong start as the opening pair of Tom Latham and Devon Conway. Both players added 317 runs for the first wicket.

Latham returned to the pavilion after scoring 151 runs with 15 fours, while Conway scored 157 runs with 22 fours and 3 sixes. After this, Henry Nicholls (36) added 42 runs with Rachin Ravindra (7) for the third wicket. After the breakup of this pair, the team kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

For England, captain Ben Stokes took maximum 4 wickets, while Joffra Archer and Shoaib Bashir took 2 wickets each. Joe Root and Gus Atkinson took 1-1 wicket. In response, England faced 45 overs till the end of the second day. The English team got an initial blow in the form of Emilio on the score of just 8, who could not even open his account. After this, Ben Duckett along with Jacob Bethel put the team in a strong position by scoring 179 runs for the second wicket. Duckett returned to the pavilion after scoring 113 runs in 99 balls with 19 fours.

From here Joe Root took charge with Bethel. By the end of the day, both the batsmen had scored 36 runs for the third wicket. Bethel is unbeaten on 74 runs with 9 fours, while Root has added 21 runs to his account. Nathan Smith and William O’Rourke have taken 1-1 wickets for the visiting team. England won the first match of the series by an innings and 115 runs. After this, New Zealand won the next match by 253 runs and leveled the series. In such a situation, the third match is decisive, the winning team will win the series.