Swann completes his five-fer to clinch victory for England.
A rain-interrupted final day at Headingley resulted in an inevitable win for England in the second Test, as New Zealand could only pray for the weather to work in their favour.
James Anderson dismissed the last man Trent Boult for a duck to wrap up a 247-run victory for the Three Lions, with Graeme Swann picking up two wickets and Stuart Broad one on the fifth day.
Play didn’t start until 11.45 BST as the covers were put on the square at Leeds in the morning and lunch was also taken early due to the heavens opening once more.
Despite less than 50 minutes of cricket being possible before the first interval it didn’t take long for England’s bowlers to go to work on the overnight batsmen.
Broad found Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum wanting at the crease and the skipper was caught and bowled by the seamer for just one following some acrobatics.
It has been a disappointing series for McCullum, but the visitors thought luck was on their side when Jonathan Trott dropped Tim Southee in the slips off Swann’s bowling.
It would have completed the spinner’s five-fer but luckily for him he didn’t have to wait much longer as just 16 runs later Trott was more solid and redeemed himself for the 34-year-old.
Southee’s wicket was added to Swann’s four from the previous day and capped off an impressive return to Test cricket for the spin bowler.
Despite bad light stopping play shortly after with the Kiwis on 219-8 it seemed to be just delaying the inevitable, although nearly two-and-a-half hours without the players returning made the England fans nervy.
Yet play did resume just after 15.00 BST and Swann wasted little time in taking his sixth scalp as Ian Bell caught Doug Bracewell.
Boult bravely came to bat from the pavilion even though he is suffering with a side strain and it was the seamer who was the last man out, caught behind by Matt Prior off the bowling of Anderson to gift England a 2-0 series victory.
Day five – morning session:
Day five – afternoon session:
England v New Zealand
Played at Headingley
Toss won by England
England 1st Innings 354 (J Root 104, J Bairstow 64; T Boult 5-57)
New Zealand 1st Innings 174 (G Swann 4-42, S Finn 3-36)
England 2nd Innings 287-5dec.
New Zealand 2nd Innings
P. Fulton c Bell b Broad 5
H. Rutherford c Root b Swann 42
K. Williamson lbw b Swann 3
R. Taylor b Swann 70
D. Brownlie c Bell b Finn 25
M. Guptill c Trott b Swann 3
B. McCullum c and b Broad 1
T. Southee c Trott b Swann 38
D. Bracewell c Bell b Swann 19
N. Wagner not out
T. Boult c Prior b Anderson 0
Extras (w1,b2,lb11) 14
Fall of wickets: 1-21 (Fulton), 2-40 (Williamson), 3-65 (Rutherford), 4-144 (Brownlie), 5-153 (Guptill), 6-154 (Taylor) 7-162 (McCullum) 8-218 (Southee) 9-220 (Bracewell) 10-220 (Boult) Total (10 wkts, 76.3 overs, 240 mins) 158
Bowling: Anderson 11.3-4-28-1; Broad 11-3-26-2; Swann 32-12-90-6; Finn 19-5-62-1; Root 3-2-1-0;
England win by 247 runs.
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