New Zealand leading pacer Trent Boult blocks English team at the lowest total of 58, marked 6/32 in 10.4 overs and his partner Tim Southee supports him fully with 25/4. It is England’s sixth-lowest total in Test Cricket. Boult got six for 32, his career best, and Tim Southee four for 35, after Kane Williamson, won the toss and chosen to bowl. England Opener Alastair Cook was Boult’s first dismissal, edging one that moved off to Tom Latham at second slip in the fifth over. Boult bowled England’s captain and Modern star Joe Root for a duck in his next over and had Dawid Malan caught behind by BJ Watling for two in the one after that.
That was when Southee got in on the action, first forcing Mark Stoneman to prod at one and miss outside off, then getting him to nick one through to Watling. Stoneman made 11 off 20 balls, the second-highest score of the England innings. Boult bowled Ben Stokes, advanced to No 5, with doubt envelope his ability to bowl a full all-rounder’s workload, for a duck, leaving England 18-5 at the end of the 11th over.
With those runs, England walked past the two innings of 30, made by South Africa against them in 1896 and 1924, and a 35 and a pair of 36s. After Anderson avoided the firing line with a single in the 18th over, Overton took England to 44, passing four more of the all-time worst scores. Anderson then got a single as Boult repeated for a 10th over, securing they wouldn’t set a new record low for themselves, and Overton hooked Boult for six, to take England past 50. Overton finished not out on 33 off 25 balls, scoring 57 percent of his team’s runs, as Anderson pushed at one from Boult, bowling an 11th-straight over, to give Henry Nicholls an easy catch at point.
England Score: 58 (Craig Overton 33*; Trent Boult 6-32, Tim Southee 4-25) vs New Zealand.
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