SWEEP DREAMS
Big hitters Bairstow and Root blitz New Zealand to seal series whitewash with style
WHEN it came, the final two balls of the series summed up this 3-0 whitewash by England over world Test champions New Zealand.
A powerful cut for four through the covers followed by a towering six over wide long on from Jonny Bairstow to seal a seven-wicket win and a third successive run chase of more than 250.
No team have done that before but in the space of four short weeks this England Test side have gone from an uncertain and misfiring rabble into a high octane, ruthless powerhouse under coach Brendon McCullum.
No one has epitomised that change more than Bairstow, who returned from the Indian Premier League desperate to prove his worth as a Test player to the new regime and has found himself the beating heart of this revolution.
India will be up next and their bowling attack is perhaps even more menacing than the Kiwis.
But how on earth will they be able to stop Bairstow in this form?
England only needed 111 more runs when he charged for the middle once Ollie Pope had been dismissed, seemingly determined to make someone pay for the twoand-a-half-hour rain delay.
The New Zealand bowlers were inevitably that someone, powerless to stop him as his 50 came from 30 balls to make it the second fastest in Tests for England.
All the while man-ofthe-series Joe Root was at the other end happy to give him the strike as if it were a one-day international and the crowd at Headingley were only interested in boundaries.
Root, succeeded by Ben Stokes as captain, said: “It is special. It has been a strange few weeks from where we’ve been over the last few months in Test cricket. But it has been so much fun and really enjoyable.
“It is phenomenal to start Ben’s era like that and I’ll keep supporting Ben however I can. It’s great to see Jonny in this form and playing with that kind of freedom. I’m sure everyone watching in the ground and at home enjoyed it as much as we have from the dressing room.” The performances of Bairstow both at Trent Bridge plus Headingley have been the most eye-catching of the new era and skipper Stokes hailed his first innings ton here as the best of the lot considering the circumstances.
He said: “At 55-6 we were in all sorts. So for Jonny to continue to play like that was brilliant.
“He had asked McCullum how he should play and Baz just said, ‘Go and grab your sudoku book and sit down next to me.’ Basically telling him to shut up and whatever he did last week, go and do it again. So he did.” As delighted as Stokes was with the batters who had scored at such a rate, he was right to highlight the efforts of his bowlers as well at the close. Jack Leach claimed the man-of-the-match award for his maiden 10-wicket haul, while Matt Potts amazed even his captain with his staying power and desire. Stokes said: “I was delighted for Leachy who really responded to the responsibility.”