Weather Spoils Day Two At Lord`s

Weather Spoils Day Two At Lord`s
May 16 2008

Cook and Strauss - going strong.
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Poor light wrecked the second day's play of the first npower Test between England and New Zealand at Lord's.


When England openers Alastair Cook and Andrew Strauss walked off to significant boos from the crowd at 5.40pm it was the fifth - and final - stoppage.


England were no doubt wary of losing a wicket in the gloom, and thus undoing their hard work of getting to 68 without loss.


Earlier, Ryan Sidebottom held a monopoly on the second-day wickets as New Zealand were finally dismissed for 277.


Left-armer Sidebottom, England's newly-crowed player of the year, took all four to fall.


He finished the innings off when New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who made 48, misjudged a delivery and was bowled leaving it alone.


In a drastic improvement from yesterday, Sidebottom returned figures of four for five from 10.1 overs.


It was a stop-start affair, however, due to the London gloom and England were faced with the same tricky conditions in which Michael Vaughan put the Black Caps into bat yesterday.


Just two balls were sent down in the afternoon session when visibility was first deemed inappropriate and despite an interlude of 21 balls, the players were back in the pavilion again following a second ruling by the umpires.


Sidebottom had made a stunning return after the first break in play, bowling Tim Southee with the first ball back.


He had made a similar impression with the second new ball, following a confident leg before wicket shout by knocking over Kyle Mills' off-stump with a full, swinging delivery.


Sidebottom claimed the first breakthrough following stubborn resistance from New Zealand's seventh-wicket pair of Jacob Oram and Vettori.


After going wicketless for the majority of the opening hour of the second morning, left-armer Sidebottom turned Oram around to send the ball to first slip.


Andrew Strauss juggled the catch before clutching the ball under his chin to complete a well-planned dismissal.


Sidebottom and James Anderson forced Oram onto the back foot with some short stuff and the giant left-hander was static on the crease as he attempted to turn to leg.


The only previous scare as the Black Caps, resuming on 208 for six, added only 24 runs for the loss of one wicket.


It came in the third over when Vettori drove to mid-on off Ryan Sidebottom, where Stuart Broad produced a half-stop.


His diving effort deflected the ball to Michael Vaughan at mid-off, by which time Vettori was stood halfway down the pitch urging seventh-wicket partner Jacob Oram to run - he scampered through to get home as Vaughan relayed to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.


Once again, Vettori prospered at number eight, carving out his runs carefully before opening his shoulders when joined by last man Chris Martin.


Three times in one James Anderson over, Vettori guided to the off-side boundary as the New Zealanders compiled what appears to be a competitive first-innings score.