‘Phenomenal, incredible’: Bairstow’s 136 lauded by England captain Stokes

Jonny Bairstow brought New Zealand to their knees and a capacity crowd to its feet with an innings of beautiful brutality to power England to a five-wicket victory in the second Test at Trent Bridge, producing a 92-ball 136 that Ben Stokes described as “one of the best things I’ve ever seen” and made a daunting run chase appear trivial.

Bairstow emerged from the dressing room with England 56 for three in their pursuit of a victory target of 299, and with a shade over 57 overs remaining. When he departed they needed 27 with very nearly 27 overs in hand and the rest was a formality.

“I’m incredibly proud of the way I went about that innings,” he said. “Because it wasn’t just a case of, let’s go gung-ho. It was pick your times, pick your moments, then try to change the game.”

Tea was taken with England 139 for four and the game still in the balance, but when play resumed Bairstow scored 45 off the next 20 deliveries he faced, responding to a barrage of short balls by repeatedly dumping them into the crowd. “Ben said: ‘Don’t even think about hitting it down, just plant it in the stands,’” Bairstow said. “I was just trying to do what the captain said.”

In all England scored 59 runs from the first four overs of a dizzying final session dominated by Bairstow and Stokes, who was troubled at times by a longstanding knee injury – “nothing to worry about,” he said later – and hit a comparatively pedestrian 70-ball 75.

“There’s been some tough times over the last couple of years, we’ve all been there and we know the circumstances that they’ve been under,” Bairstow said. “To entertain a full house at Trent Bridge on day five, to play this cricket, is a credit to the guys in the dressing room. There was never a backward step taken.