After registering a dominant five-wicket win over New Zealand in the first Test, England were put on backfoot by the Kiwis early in the second Test after they conceded a mammoth total of 553 in the first innings. England captain Ben Stokes had won the toss and opted to bowl but New Zealand, riding on centuries from Daryl Mitchell (190) and Tom Blundell (106), put on a strong score. England did lose an early wicket in their first innings but finished at 90/1 at the end of Day 2 of the Test in Nottingham.
Following the end of Day 1 (where New Zealand finished at 318/4 in the first innings), England's fast bowling coach Jon Lewis insisted that Stokes took the correct call to bowl after winning the toss. "We took the aggressive option. We wanted to bowl New Zealand out. It was the right call," Lewis told BBC Sport.
"The important thing about the toss was it was the aggressive play after last week," the coach had added.
However, former England captain Michael Vaughan, taking a brutal dig at Lewis, reacted to his statement on his official Twitter account. He wrote, “318 for 4 reasons why I wouldn’t think that’s possibly correct …”
{{/usCountry}}However, former England captain Michael Vaughan, taking a brutal dig at Lewis, reacted to his statement on his official Twitter account. He wrote, “318 for 4 reasons why I wouldn’t think that’s possibly correct …”
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, New Zealand posted their highest total in Test cricket on English soil, thanks to Mitchell and Blundell's century knocks. For the English team, James Anderson was the pick of the bowler with three wickets, while Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Jack Leach took two each.
The home side lost the early wicket of Zak Crawley as Trent Boult gave New Zealand an early breakthrough. However, Ollie Pope -- playing in his 25th Test -- played a counter-attacking knock as he remained unbeaten on 51 off 73 balls, while Alex Lees (34 off 77 balls) also remained unbeaten at the end of the day.