England vs New Zealand: Stokes becomes 3rd English batter to smash 100 sixes; Bairstow crosses 5000 Test runs

Leeds: England Test captain Ben Stokes on Friday became the third batter to hit 100 sixes in Test cricket history during the third match against New Zealand at Headingley.

Stokes achieved the feat with a six off Tim Southee’s delivery in his 151st Test innings. Former Kiwi skipper and current England Test format coach Brendon McCullum tops the list with 107 sixes.
While Adam Gilchrist is on the second spot, smashing 100 maximums from 96 Tests. Chris Gayle (98) and Jacques Kallis (97) are up the top five batters in the table.

The match also saw Stokes’s compatriot Jonny Bairstow become the 24th English player to cross 5000 runs in Test cricket.

In the same match, the duo of all-rounder Daryl Mitchell and wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell has added the most number of partnership runs for New Zealand during a Test series, adding a total of 611 runs so far.

Mitchell-Blundell put on another solid show for their side. After NZ was struggling at 123/5, the duo put up a stand of 120 runs which ended with Blundell being dismissed for 55 by pacer Matty Potts.

With this, the duo has beaten the record of batters Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones, who put together 552 runs in two innings against Sri Lanka in 1991.

Mitchell also became the first New Zealand batter to score three successive centuries against England in a Test series.

In the first innings, the all-rounder scored 109 off 228 balls with nine fours and three sixes before falling to spinner Jack Leach, after being caught by English skipper Ben Stokes.

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With this century, he also became the ninth player overall to smash a century in each match of a series having three Test matches or more. He has now joined the elite company of batters like Ken Barrington, Shoaib Mohammad, Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Mohammed Yousuf, Ross Taylor, Steve Smith and Virat Kohli.

Mitchell has been in an amazing form in the series so far. In five innings, Mitchell has scored 482 runs at an average of 120.5. Three centuries and one half-century has come out of his bat, with the best score of 190.

Coming to the match, England’s innings is currently in progress. At the end of Day 2, England are at 264/6 in 49 overs, with Jonny Bairstow (130*) and debutant Jamie Overton (89*). The side is currently trailing by 65 runs in the match.

The English were off a poor start and were reduced to 55/6 before Bairstow and Overton took control of the innings.
Pacer Trent Boult is the star for the Kiwis with the ball so far, having taken 3/73 in 16 overs with an economy rate of 4.60.

Earlier batting first, NZ were bundled out for 329. Mitchell (109) and Blundell (55) played top knocks that powered Kiwis to such a solid score.

Jack Leach was the star for England with the ball, taking 5/100 with his spin bowling. Stuart Broad also took 3/62.
England currently leads the three-match series 2-0.

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