DAY 5: Henry the hero as New Zealand level England series in style

Matt Henry did the damage as New Zealand thrashed England by 253 runs in the second test at The Oval on Sunday for a series-levelling victory as England confirmed that Ben Stokes would return as captain for the deciding third test.

Stokes was dropped for breaching a team curfew following his side's win in the series opener at Lord's.

"Ben will be back. He'll be back as captain," said England head coach Brendon McCullum after the match.

Fast-medium bowler Henry's sensational spell of four wickets for no runs in 12 balls saw England, who were 182-5 overnight, collapse to 192-9.

Henry finished the match by bowling Jordan Cox as England, who were chasing a record-breaking 463 to win, were dismissed for 209.

New Zealand needed just 48 minutes play on Sunday's fifth day at The Oval to square the three-match series at 1-1 ahead of next week's decider in Nottingham.

Henry's superb second-innings return of 6-29, allied to his five-wicket haul in England's first-innings 5-80, gave him overall figures of 11-109.

Henry's maiden 10-wicket haul in a test was also the best by any New Zealand bowler against England, surpassing Dion Nash's 11-169 at Lord's back in 1994.

"I probably didn't expect things to unfold like that today," said Henry, the player of the match.

"With the ball, we talked about being relentless. We stuck at it and it was nice to get the rewards."

'SPEARHEAD'

New Zealand captain Tom Latham added: "We thought hitting the top of off stump repetitively was the way to go on this surface and Matt Henry is a good exponent of that.

"He built pressure through dot balls and also wickets. He has been a spearhead for some time."

Shortly before play started on Sunday, the England and Wales Cricket Board announced that both Stokes and Gus Atkinson had been withdrawn from county action with Durham and Surrey respectively.

It was the clearest hint that the duo would be recalled to test-match duty at Trent Bridge after being stood down this week for breaching a team curfew following England's 115-run win in the first test at Lord's earlier this month.

England resumed all but beaten at 182-5, needing a further 281 runs to reach what would have been a record-breaking target.

The highest winning fourth-innings total in 149 years of test cricket is West Indies' 418-7 against Australia at St John's in 2003.

England's hopes of an improbable win rested with stand-in captain Joe Root, who was 75 not out overnight after joining India great Sachin Tendulkar as the only batsman to have made 14 000 test runs.

But Root had added just two runs to his score when he was plumb lbw to Henry. With a rejigged England side showing five changes, including three debutants, from the one that Stokes led at Lord's, a lengthy tail was exposed by the New Zealand spearhead.

"Credit to New Zealand, who I thought played very well," said Root. "There were a number of occasions when the game was in the balance and they won the crucial moments. It is 1-1 and still everything to play for at Trent Bridge.

"We just have to do things better for longer. Be smarter."

Two balls after Root's exit, the 34-year-old Henry clean bowled Jofra Archer for a duck, with a delivery that kept low before smashing into the stumps.

New batsman Matthew Fisher had made a maiden test fifty in the first innings, but on Sunday he was clean bowled for nought by Henry.

With the next ball, the paceman had new batsman Josh Tongue edging to Daryl Mitchell in the slips for a golden duck, with England on the brink at 192-9.

A double-wicket maiden (a bowler removing two batsmen in the same over without conceding a run) is rare in test cricket, but Henry, hampered by back spasms at Lord's, now had two in a row.

The end was not long in coming as Henry bowled Cox to seal an emphatic victory which saw both New Zealand allrounder Glenn Phillips and Henry Nicholls, who replaced retired great Kane Williamson, hit hundreds.

ENGLAND: Ben Duckett, Emilio Gay, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root (capt), Harry Brook, James Rew (wkt), Jordan Cox, Jofra Archer, Josh Tongue, Matthew Fisher, Sonny Baker

NEW ZEALAND: Tom Latham (capt), Devon Conway, Henry Nicholls, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell (wkt), Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Kyle Jamieson, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke