Sports News | New Zealand 108-2 at Lunch on Day 1 of 2nd Test Vs. England

Nottingham, Jun 10 (AP) New Zealand ruined a strong start to the second cricket test against England by losing its openers to successive deliveries to go into lunch on 108-2 at Trent Bridge on Friday.

Put into bat under a cloudy sky in Nottingham, New Zealand openers Tom Latham — the stand-in captain — and Will Young had reached 84 before Young (47) edged Ben Stokes to second slip where Zak Crawley took a fine low catch.

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Stokes immediately brought Jimmy Anderson back into the attack and the veteran seamer enticed a mis-hit pull shot from Latham that sailed into the hands of Matthew Potts at midwicket for 26.

Devon Conway (10) and Henry Nicholls (14) were in the middle at the end of the session for a Black Caps batting lineup that was missing regular captain Kane Williamson, who tested positive for the coronavirus late Thursday and was forced to isolate.

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The pressure was on the New Zealanders, who lost the first test of the three-match series by five wickets at Lord's last week and also lost the toss in windy and overcast conditions at Trent Bridge.

England didn't capitalize early on, though, with the tourists barely offering up a chance in the first hour and Young, in particular, slowly becoming more aggressive with his shot-making.

He flicked Stuart Broad, playing on his home ground, for back-to-back fours in what proved the last over of the paceman's second spell and Stokes came into the attack, sending down two no-balls in his first over.

The recently appointed England captain finally got the breakthrough, though that didn't put New Zealand on the back foot as the sun came out.

Nicholls and Conway continued the positive approach and the Black Caps went to lunch having struck 20 boundaries already, the last coming from Nicholls off the final ball of the session.

Latham, who said he would have chosen to bowl if he had won the toss, handed a test debut to Michael Bracewell, the fourth seamer in an all-pace attack. England was unchanged from Lord's. AP

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