Matt Henry roars back with 11 wickets as New Zealand crush England at The Oval

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Matt Henry roars back with 11 wickets as New Zealand crush England at The Oval

2026-06-21 22:23 Last Updated At：22:30

LONDON (AP) — Matt Henry had some making up to do.

The senior seamer of New Zealand's all-pace attack felt he let his team down against England in the first test at Lord's when back spasms on the first morning turned him into a virtual passenger.

He did rally to take a wicket but he wasn't his usual, hard-charging, naggingly effective self.

That changed at The Oval this week.

A 10-day break between the games allowed him to fully recover and on Sunday he was named the player of the match in New Zealand's series-leveling win by 253 runs.

A first innings 5-80 and a second innings 6-29 gave him 11-109, the best test figures ever by a New Zealander against England and the first 10-wicket match haul in his 35-test career.

Henry finished off England inside the first hour of the fifth and final day. He pinned Joe Root on 77, becoming the first bowler to take out Root and Harry Brook twice in the same match.

The Kiwi smashed Jofra Archer’s wickets with an unplayable shooter that Archer could only smile at, got Matthew Fisher to chop on for his 150th test wicket, and Josh Tongue to edge to first slip in two successive double-wicket maidens. Jordan Cox blocked the hat-trick ball but was out trying to sweep Henry and ended the match before noon.

Henry took 5-3 in 31 balls on Sunday and became the first bowler to take 10 wickets at The Oval since Shane Warne in the 2005 Ashes and the first pacer since Devon Malcolm in 1994 against South Africa.

“We hit the top of off on repeat,” New Zealand captain Tom Latham said. “Matt Henry is good at putting it on the mark. First innings and second, he built pressure through dot balls and getting crucial wickets. He's been a spearhead for us for a long period, nice for him to get the results.”

The 34-year-old Henry started his test career in 2015 in the shadow of Tim Southee and Trent Boult and truly emerged as they retired in the last three years.

He's taken 80 wickets in his last 14 tests, hitting form since the start of 2024. In that period, he's taken seven of his eight career test 5-fors and won home series against England and South Africa, an historic series in India, and sent this series to a decider in Nottingham starting Thursday.

New Zealand has won only three series in England, in 1986, 1999 and 2021, when Henry contributed six wickets to the decisive win at Edgbaston.

After stretching his back out for 42.1 overs at The Oval, he and his fellow pacers have only four days of rest. But he's at least making an impact, unlike at Lord's.

“It feels bad when you let the guys down on day one,” he said. “It was great to come here and get my quota out.”

Henry picked out wicketkeeper Tom Blundell for standing up to the stumps when he bowled to keep England in two minds in the crease. They pulled off an incredible heist catch against Archer.

“Having a world-class operator like Tom is huge,” Henry said. “He's always up for it. You can't do it unless you've got someone good behind the stumps. We know England like to create a flow of runs.”

Henry shared the praise around.

“It's pretty easy when you've got a strong bowling group. Kyle (Jamieson) and Will (O'Rourke) coming back from injuries, their character to come back the way they have. Nathan Smith going from strength to strength. You're only as good as the strength of the group.”

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket

The Latest: Vance and Iranian negotiators are in Switzerland to work on deal's details

U.S. and Iranian negotiators were in Switzerland on Sunday for talks on their interim agreement to end the Iran war. Pakistani and Qatari mediators also were there for the technical-level discussions on resolving the conflict that the U.S. and Israel began in late February.

The U.S. team is led by Vice President JD Vance and includes Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. They are meeting with Iranian negotiators led by Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.

On the eve of talks, Tehran said it closed the Strait of Hormuz again over Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Lebanon. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including Lebanon.

U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose American tolls in the strait if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days. The interim agreement calls for toll-free travel for 60 days in the waterway that is vital for the world’s supply of oil, natural gas and related goods like fertilizer.

Here is the latest:

Israel’s military issued a statement around the time that direct talks began. Its chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, was speaking from southern Lebanon. He said “the ceasefire that has been declared is fragile, and we must maintain a high level of readiness for the renewal of combat operations.”

He said the military continues to defend against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its efforts to rebuild.

The last time that Vance met directly with senior Iranian officials for such talks was in early April, days after a ceasefire took effect in the war. Those talks in Pakistan's capital of Islamabad ended after 21 hours without reaching an agreement. Again, Vance was meeting with lead negotiator Qalibaf.

It's now after 4 p.m. in Switzerland.

Both Iran and the White House say four-way talks have begun in Switzerland. Vance is meeting with Iranian officials.

Trump hopes to get the agreement signed last week back on track. Israel's ongoing military campaign in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group threatens progress on implementation.

Iran says its main focus in these talks is the situation in Lebanon. Israel says it must defend itself from Hezbollah. But the U.S. side wants to get Iran locked into negotiations over its nuclear program, which has long been at the heart of tensions.

Trump has warned in a post on social media that Iran needs to stop Hezbollah from “causing trouble.”

"If they don’t, we’ll hit Iran very hard again, just like we did last week, only harder!!!” Trump wrote from Camp David, where he is spending the weekend.

The U.S. vice president spoke as officials were gathering for the start of the U.S.-Iran talks on Sunday.

“The question before us now is how much more can we accomplish together? Can we turn over a new leaf?” Vance said in brief comments ahead of the talks, dubbed the “Lake Lucerne Summit.”

“Can we change relations in the Middle East permanently, or do we go back to doing things the old way, which is not our preference, but is certainly very much something that can happen,” Vance added.

It was not clear if the Iranians were present during Vance's remarks.

The Israeli military says it killed two militants who were involved in helping transfer up to half a billion dollars to Hamas. The military says the two — Hussein Qadra and Mohammed Farra, who worked with Hamas and the militant group Palestinian Islamic Jihad — were killed in a strike last week.

It said on Sunday that the men oversaw a network of couriers and money exchange spots in both Gaza and Turkey that funneled money towards Hamas militants and infrastructure.

Both men were killed on Wednesday and buried on Thursday, according to their families. Farra’s family said his father, mother and sister were killed in an Israeli strike earlier in the war.

The conflict in Gaza is not part of the U.S-Iran talks underway in Switzerland.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has separately met with JD Vance and with the Iranian delegation at the Bürgenstock Resort near Lucerne in Switzerland where the high-level talks are taking place.

Islamabad says Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, accompanied Sharif at the meetings. It did not provide further details.

Sharif has repeatedly said Munir played a key role in brokering the memorandum of understanding between the U.S. and Iran.

A video released by Sharif’s office shows him warmly embracing Qalibaf, Iran's parliament speaker, and Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, as Munir looks on.

Rafael Grossi, chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog — the International Atomic Energy Agency — met with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis on the sidelines of the gathering at the picturesque mountainside resort near Lake Lucerne on Sunday morning.

The agency had monitored the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated between the U.S. and Iran under the Obama administration.

Trump in 2018 withdrew the U.S. from that agreement.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei says Tehran will mainly focus during the talks on Sunday on the ongoing fighting in Lebanon.

Tehran insists that the deal’s implementation start with a cessation of all fighting — including between Israel and Hezbollah.

Baghaei said the U.S. “has been unable or unwilling” to hold Israel to the ceasefire.

Iran will meet in the morning with Pakistani and Qatari mediators, and in the afternoon, there will be a four-way meeting including the U.S. negotiating team. There is currently only one day of negotiations planned, Baghaei told the state news agency.

“The implementation of any document is more important than its signing,” Baghaei also said Sunday.

Iran’s president has said that Iran will maintain its right to a nuclear program.

“What is certain is that we will never back down from the right to enrich uranium, and the other side is also forced to accept it,” Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday, according to state media.

As the U.S.-Iran talks were to kick off in Switzerland, a ceasefire appears to be holding in Lebanon, a lull that came after another day of heavy fighting.

Since the ceasefire, Israeli strikes on Friday and Saturday killed 97 people, including eight women and four children, Lebanese officials said. Five Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Israel says it targeted Hezbollah infrastructure on Saturday, including a tunnel network in the southern Lebanese town of Kfar Tebnit.

But by Sunday morning, residents in southern Lebanon reported a lull in Israeli strikes. There also were no reports of Hezbollah fire from the Israeli side.

Israel’s military has received instructions to uphold the ceasefire, and said it is only acting defensively, according to an Israeli military official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military guidelines.

—Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir are also in Switzerland for the high-level U.S.-Iran talks, the prime minister's office said without providing further details.

The technical-level talks at Bürgenstock Resort near the Swiss city of Lucerne are being held after Sharif dispatched his special envoy, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, to Tehran to persuade Iranian authorities to send a delegation to Switzerland. The meeting was originally scheduled for Friday but was delayed because of concerns raised by Iran.

Naqvi later informed Islamabad that Iran was willing to attend the talks. Pakistan subsequently conveyed the development to Washington.

The strait has emerged as a key focus, with Iran’s joint military command saying on Saturday that it was closed again because of the U.S. “clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon where Israeli forces are battling the militant Hezbollah group.

The U.S. disputed Iran’s announcement, with the U.S. Central Command saying that traffic continues to flow and that 55 merchant ships transited on Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil.

Ships began transiting after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed last week. The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and now allows Tehran to sell its oil freely — terms that have left some in U.S. Congress asking whether the war was worth it.

The interim deal signed by Trump and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but the time can be extended.