New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson feels late strikes in the first two sessions of the final day gave his bowlers confidence they could finish the job. Meanwhile, the Kiwis beat England by an innings and 49 runs to go 1-0 up in the series.
Trent Boult & Co. set it up with a brilliant display of bowling when England got out for 58 in 20.4 overs. However, they had to keep chipping away in England’s second innings, which lasted 105.3 overs longer than their first.
“We knew that we wanted to play the long game. We didn’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves,” Williamson said after the match.
“Was aware that we would need to work hard against a quality England side … in terms of taking wickets in the second innings. And they showed that it was very hard to do. We had a slightly older ball coming into today and we knew that it wasn’t going to do a lot for us. So it was important that we hit our areas and build that pressure,” he added.
Meanwhile, the pressure paid off three times in England’s second innings with the Kiwis striking after England has built a formidable performance.
Boult had Joe Root caught in the final over of the fourth day after he had scored 51. Also, Moeen Ali LBW in the final over of the first session of the last day.
Neil Wagner then removed Ben Stokes in the final over of the middle session to end an 83 run partnership.
“I think the big part of it was taking wickets before the end of the sessions. The guys’ spirits were high, and it was great to come out in the last session and do the job,” he concluded.
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