Sidebottom skittles tourists

3:43pm Friday 16th May 2008

Ryan Sidebottom held a monopoly on the second-day wickets as New Zealand were finally dismissed in the first npower Test at Lord's.

Left-armer Sidebottom, England's newly-crowned player of the year, took all four to fall as the tourists, who took two offers of bad light after lunch, were all out for 277.

He finished the innings off when New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who made 48, misjudged one and was bowled leaving it alone to give him 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 inserted the opposition on Thursday.

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, accounting for Tim Southee with the first ball back. He had made a similar impression with the second new ball, following a confident leg before 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, 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.

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