Atkinson hat-trick sparks England with series win over New Zealand in sight

Second Test, day two: England 280 & 378-5; NZ 125
Jacob Bethell stumbles agonisingly shy of century

It was still 10.13pm on Friday evening in Barbados and while the fish fryers were doubtless cooking up a storm at Oistins, 8,600 miles away in Wellington, 3.13pm local time on Saturday, their boy, now England’s bat, was doing something similar.

Jacob Bethell, zero professional centuries to his name, was one shot away from ticking that particular box in just his second Test match, at No 3. And like his family back in Bridgetown, his friends in Birmingham and his supporters on the grass banks, the statisticians were poised, ready to herald England’s fourth-youngest Test centurion and, at 21 years and 45 days, their youngest since the second world war.

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