New Zealand wins toss and bowls in 2nd test against England. Stokes happy to bat

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl Friday in the second test against England.

The pitch appeared bright green as usual at the Basin Reserve and New Zealand captain Tom Latham was happy to win the toss and give his bowlers first use, though England captain Ben Stokes said he would have batted first anyway.

The average first innings score in Wellington is 315.

"It looks like a traditional surface here in Wellington so we’re happy to be able to make use of it first up," Latham said. "It’s always an important first two hours."

Both teams are unchanged from the first test in Christchurch which England won by eight wickets.

New Zealand considered playing spinner Mitchell Santner, reflecting that Australian spinner Nathan Lyon took 10 wickets at the Basin Reserve last year. But it decided to retain a four-pronged pace attack with Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra as the spin options.

New Zealand might also have considered bringing in opener Will Young in place of Devon Conway whose recent poor form continued in Christchurch where he had scores of 2 and 8.

"Whether you win or whether you lose, you’re always looking to improve and the guys have worked hard the last couple of days to focus on a couple of areas," Latham said. “I don’t think we are too far away.

"The result in Christchurch may suggest so but we did some good stuff throughout that test match."

England had little incentive to make changes after a complete team performance in the first test. Harry Brook made a massive contribution to England’s win with his 171 while Ollie Pope with 77 and Stokes with 80 in the first innings and Jacob Bethell with an unbeaten 50 in the second also stood out.

Brydon Carse had match figures of 10-106.

"I was very happy with the way we went about that game last week," Stokes said. “It was a real team effort where everyone contributed at some point.

"We obviously had some outstanding individual performances from Harry Brook and Brydon Carse but everyone is contributing in different little parts of our game."

The last time England and New Zealand met at the Basin Reserve, New Zealand won by a single run in one of the closest tests of all time.

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New Zealand: Tom Latham (captain), Devon Conway, Kane Williamson, Rachin Ravindra, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell, Glenn Phillips, Nathan Smith, Tim Southee, Matt Henry, Will O'Rourke.

England: Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Jacob Bethell, Joe Root, Harry Brook, Ollie Pope, Ben Stokes (captain), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Brydon Carse, Shoaib Bashir.