England Eye Clean Sweep Against Kiwis

Leeds: How long New Zealand can hold their nerve against England's bowlers will determine the fate of the second and final Test starting at Headingley on Friday.

For 18 straight days spread over four Tests this year, New Zealand punched well above their weight and rattled the English.

But on the 19th day, last Sunday, England revealed its capabilities on a home pitch at Lord's offering swing, seam and turn. The Kiwis were routed for 68 for England to win the opening Test of this brief series by 170 runs and more than a day.

England, despite still being far from polished, will resume at Leeds inspired in believing that if it can put up a decent amount of runs, it has the bowlers and knowhow to achieve only its second series sweep of the Kiwis in 35 years.

As difficult as Lord's tricky pitch was, especially under cloud cover, Headingley's will be more of the same. Clouds and showers are in the forecast, ideal for the seamers in both sides, but not good news for New Zealand's batsmen, who didn't help themselves by a lack of technique and patience.

Notably, openers Peter Fulton and Hamish Rutherford have yet to see an eighth over. Since arriving in England, Fulton's scores have been gory -- 21, 3, 7, and in the Test: 2 and 1.

But the Kiwis will make changes, albeit enforced, against England for the first time this year after wicketkeeper BJ Watling and spinner Bruce Martin failed to recover from leg injuries at Lord's.

McCullum will keep wicket and Martin Guptill will replace Watling in the line-up. Guptill lost his place before the home series with England in March because of a left thumb injury. Martin will be replaced by either former captain Daniel Vettori or paceman Doug Bracewell.

With Daniel Vettori ruled out of the second Test, Brendon McCullum will now have to trust in pace at Headingley, one of the most capricious grounds in England. Even he's not sure how it will pan out.

Lord's so revitalized the English bowlers, who were subpar in New Zealand, that James Anderson was hailed by Saker as the finest swing bowler in the world. Ian Botham believed Anderson, who became the fourth Englishman to reach 300 wickets, will eventually eclipse him to be England's greatest wicket-taker.

But just as England has its bowlers back in order, the batsmen have proved to be vulnerable to New Zealand seamers Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Neil Wagner, who have also found conditions to their liking and give the visitors their biggest reason to be optimistic.

The failure of England's middle order has created a long tail. At Lord's, England disintegrated from 192-4 to 232, and from 159-2 to 213.

Joe Root, who scored 71 in the second innings, more than New Zealand, has been the hardest to root out, no pun intended. He's made 756 first-class run in six innings in this English season, and has an outside chance of becoming the eighth man to achieve 1,000 runs before June 1. Don Bradman did it twice.

Teams:

England: Alastair Cook (captain), Nick Compton, Jonathan Trott, Joe Root, Tim Bresnan, Matt Prior (wk), Steven Finn, Stuart Broad, Ian Bell, Graeme Swann, James Anderson, Jonathan Bairstow

New Zealand: Peter Fulton, Hamish Rutherford, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Dean Brownlie, Brendon McCullum (captain & wk), Doug Bracewell, Martin Guptill, Tim Southee, Neil Wagner, Bruce Martin, Trent Boult, Tom Latham, Mark Gillespie

Pitch and conditions
The clouds roll over the pitch can still do strange things - and there are showers forecast for Friday.

Stats and trivia

• England's last win at Headingley came against West Indies in 2007. Since then they have lost two and drawn one.
• Stuart Broad needs nine wickets to reach 200 in Tests; three will take him past Jim Laker to become England's 15th-most successful bowler.

Match facts
May 24-28, 2013
Start time 11.00 local (1000 GMT)