Guptill determined to avenge loss at Lord’s

"We're pretty confident we can come out and square the series"

“We’re pretty confident we can come out and square the series”

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New Zealand opener Martin Guptill is confident the Black Caps can avenge their 124-run loss to England in the first Test at Lord’s by winning the second Test at Headingley, which starts on Friday.

Guptill marked his Test comeback with a 70 in the first innings before being dismissed for a second-ball duck in the second innings.

However, the 28-year-old revealed that every member of the Test squad is ready to do whatever it takes to deny England a series victory.

“We’re pretty confident we can come out and square the series, and come away pretty happy,” Guptill told Sky Sports. “On the last day (at Lord’s), we just didn’t quite get the batting right.

“We’re going to come out this week firing, and hope to rectify that. It was very disappointing. Obviously, we came over here wanting to win the series but you’ve got to be able to bounce back pretty quickly.”

New Zealand have bounced back from losses in the past and Guptill, using the Black Caps’ Test series against Australia in 2011 as an example, is confident that they can do it again.

“We showed against Australia, in 2011, winning in Hobart – bouncing back in a heavy defeat in Brisbane,” he said. “I hope we can do that again this week, we’re all raring to go for Friday.”

Guptill also believes that New Zealand can find an answer on how to deal with England all-rounder Ben Stokes, who scored the fastest century at Lord’s and dismissed Kane Williamson, New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum and Mark Craig in the second innings of the first Test.

“He played a hell of a knock the other day, and really took the game away from us,” Guptill said. “He was unlucky not to come away with two hundreds.

“He’s turned himself into one of England’s better all-rounders, that they’ve had for a while. He’s a very aggressive player, likes to come out and play his shots and hits it cleanly. We’ll come up with some plans to be able to counter that this week.”

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