New Zealand showed their aggressive intent on Day 1 of the second Test against England at Headingley on Friday. The English bowlers could not stop the leaking of runs, as the Black Caps finished on 297 for the loss of eight wickets.
The first session of Day 1 was washed out due to rain and that forced an early lunch. England won the toss and skipper Alastair Cook, without any hesitation, put the Kiwis in to bat on a cloudy morning.
Nothing could have been better than England veteran paceman James Anderson, who claimed his 400th Test wicket by dismissing Martin Guptill in his second over. And to add to his delight he removed Kane Williamson in the same over. All of a sudden the Kiwis were struggling 2 for two. It was Ross Taylor and Tom Latham who steadied the innings until Stuart Broad caught Taylor in front of the stumps.
The Kiwis kept on losing wickets on Day 1, but the run flow did not stop. Black Caps skipper Brendon McCullum played a cameo of 41 runs from 28 balls, before gifting his wicket to England's Ben Stokes right after the Tea break.
Luke Ronchi made his Test debut at the age of 34 and almost scored a maiden century on Day 1 in Leeds. His partnership with Latham saved New Zealand from a slump and pushed them to a decent total of 297 for eight at the end of Day 1 on Friday.
Ronchi and Latham added 120 runs, and Ronchi got the better of Moeen Ali as he kept on finding the boundaries. Ronchi could have set a record for the fastest Test century on debut, but he got out on 88 from just 70 balls. Currently that record his held by Shikhar Dhawan who reached his century in 85 balls against Australia in Mohali.
Day 2 will be an important day for both the sides. England will want to remove the tail-enders as early as possible and the Kiwis, on the other hand, with Matt Henry and Mark Craig at the crease, will want to add some more runs to the scoreboard, so that their bowlers can have a real crack at the England batsmen.
England skipper Alastair Cook will look to cross a milestone on Day 2, as he just needs 32 runs to go past Graham Gooch to become England's highest run scorer in the longest format of the game. Cook right now has 8869 runs in 113 matches, whereas Gooch had made 8900 runs in 118 matches.
Where to Watch Live
England vs New Zealand 2nd Test Match, Day 2 is scheduled for a 11 pm BST (3.30 pm IST, 6 am ET, 10 pm NZ time) start with live coverage in India on Star Sports4. The match can also be watched via live streaming online on Starsports.com.
Viewers in the UK can flip over to Sky Sports2 to watch England vs New Zealand Live, while the live stream options are on Sky Go and Watch Sky Sports.
Audience in the US can catch the match live on ESPN3 and Watch ESPN, while audience in New Zealand can do so on Sky Sport4 and Sky Go NZ.
