Live Commentary: England vs. New Zealand: Second Test, day five - as it happened

Good morning everyone, and welcome to Sports Mole's coverage of the fifth day of the second Test match between England and New Zealand.

I won't keep you in suspense about the weather in Yorkshire - it's wet. The covers are on at Headingley and we will not be starting the day on time.

However, I may have spoken too soon. There is still a bit of light drizzle in the air, but some of the covers are being removed.

Our first update of the day from the umpires, and I suspect it won't be our last, is that they wouldn't be comfortable in beginning play in these conditions. Steve Davis told Sky Sports: "The rain is a bit heavier than it was 10 minutes ago. We would want to make sure that has stopped before we started."

Davis also insisted that given the situation of the match, it would be solely their decision on whether the outfield is fit to begin play, and that the two captains would not be consulted.

There was also a suggestion from the umpires that even if there is an issue with the light, play could still commence if England used just their spin bowlers.

It has already started to get a bit darker at Headingley, which doesn't bode well. I think that is going to be the case throughout the day. It will be light one minute, and dark the next.

Now that the weather update is out of the way, let me remind you about the state of the match going into the final day. England declared yesterday afternoon with a 467-run lead, before New Zealand reached the close of play on 158-6, meaning that they need another 310 runs to win the match. Given how the weather is looking, that isn't going to happen.

It appears as though there will be an inspection at 11.20am, which is in 25 minutes' time.

The big debate surrounding today is whether this game should already be done and dusted? England had the opportunity on Monday to declare much earlier than they did, but captain Alastair Cook made the decision to continue batting, probably an hour more than they needed to.

It will be argued that Cook should have been more ruthless in attempting to secure a 2-0 series win, but I am one of the people who can see the logic in his decision. With the Ashes just around the corner, some of England's more inexperienced batsmen need time in the middle, and although the decision has been heavily criticised, who knows if it will make a difference later in the summer.

The delay in the declaration would have only really benefited the likes of Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow, but looking at the other side of the argument, how much would they of gained from playing their innings in an aggressive manner? Technically, they wasn't playing in Test-cricket mode. Root scored 28 from 36 balls, while Bairstow scored 26 off 20.

We are under 10 minutes away from the official inspection, but the signs are good from Headingley. All of the covers have been removed. However, I dare not speak too early about a possible start time...

More positive news from Yorkshire. Both sides are on the outfield going through their warming up routine, and it does look visibly brighter.

England's bowlers have impressed during this Test series, and bowling coach David Saker has told Sky Sports that he has been happy with their collective contribution. "It has been good. It has been impressive that they have shared the load around, which is really good," he said. "Obviously James Anderson and Stuart Broad were excellent in the first Test, and Steven Finn and Graeme Swann have been good during this match, which is really pleasing."

There are unconfirmed reports that play will begin at 11.45pm if we have no rain. Keep your fingers crossed.

It has now been confirmed that play is scheduled to begin in 20 minutes time. Again, fingers crossed...

If they can get out onto the pitch, England will be really keen to get this match finished in double-quick time. There has been no word on whether there are any problems with the light, so I guess that means that they will be free to use their seam bowlers.

We are just over 10 minutes away from the scheduled start. Still no rain...this is looking promising.

I wonder who England will begin with. Graeme Swann looked threatening yesterday afternoon, but the conditions may mean that Alastair Cook hands Jimmy Anderson and Steven Finn the opportunity to skittle New Zealand out before lunch.

Here they come! The umpires lead the players out onto the pitch. There is barely anyone in the ground to watch the start of play, but we are going to get going in two minutes time.

Graeme Swann has the ball in his hand. Here we go.

After bad light stopped play four balls into the over last night, we had just two remaining this morning, which were both defended. Stuart Broad is going to take the ball from the other end.

Broad soon strays onto Brendon McCullum's pads, and he gets off the mark with a single. Tim Southee is on strike, and he is forced onto the defensive by a delivery that bounced sharply off the surface, but he moves to five with a nudge onto the leg side.

Swann continues and his second delivery finds some turn, and he is unfortunate to see the ball drop into the gap between the fielders. Southee looks slightly uneasy, but he gets the ball away for a single towards third man. Swann's final ball hits a foot-mark and hits McCullum's in front of his stumps, but the ball was clearing the stumps by some margin.

More consistent from Broad with his opening four deliveries, which McCullum deals with comfortably, before Broad hits McCullum's off-stump out of the ground! Unfortunately, McCullum had stepped away before the ball was bowled. However, Broad does strike with the next ball, taking a fantastic caught and bowled oppurtunity to remove New Zealand's captain.

The conditions out there look dreadful for batting, either through the air from the seam bowlers, or off the pitch from Swann. The spin bowler almost bowls Southee, before the batsman gets him away for four. Swann responds with a ball that fails to bounce, and it misses everyone and goes for four byes. A strange over.

A steady over from Broad, conceding a single to new batsman Doug Bracewell, but Southee goes on the attack off the final ball, striking the ball straight down the ground for four.

You would have thought that New Zealand's intention would be to defend, but they are being positive in how they are moving the ball around. Bracewell plays a lovely drive to the boundary, as the tourists pick up eight runs from the over.

Steven Finn has been brought on to replace Broad, but it's a poor start as Southee pulls him to the boundary for six, before the batsman sends the next ball into the air, but it drops short of the fielder. There are some worrying glances to the sky though, as some light rain begins to fall.

I don't think anyone has told Southee that he has a Test match to save, because he is continuing to go for his shots. To be fair to him though, he is having plenty of success, driving Swann through the covers for another boundary. Swann responds with a couple of quicker deliveries, and he should have had his fifth wicket, but Trott drops a one-handed opportunity at slip. It was a difficult chance, however. Southee then hits his second maximum in two overs off the final ball. He now has 32 from 37 balls.

Bracewell gets in on the act with another superbly-timed shot through the covers, before pulling the ball for another six. There has been some incredible hitting in the past 20 minutes. The fifty partnership has been achieved in 35 balls.

Southee continues on the attack with a sweep for four, but three bals later, he is gone, nicking the ball to Trott at slip to hand Swann his fifth wicket of the innings. Massive wicket for England, but I can't see us remaining on the field for too long. There is some rain in the distance.

Neil Wagner is the new batsman, and Finn soon has him in trouble with a perfect bouncer that the left-hander does well to defend. But the players are heading off...

Well that has put a dampener on proceedings...no pun intended. The players march off the pitch, with England still requiring two wickets to win the match.

It appears as though the umpires have indicated that an early lunch will be taken. We will be back in 30 minutes time, with hopefully some better news from the middle.

Welcome back for what is supposed to be the afternoon session from Headingley. However, I'm disappointed to say that I don't see us getting underway in the foreseeable future..

It is raining a considerably lot harder than it was when an early lunch was called. The covers are on, and it looks gloomy in Yorkshire.

Apart from New Zealand, it is very frustrating for all concerned because England were arguably just 15 minutes away from securing victory. The tourists still have two wickets left, but the conditions were perfect for the bowlers before lunch, and it appeared only a matter of time before the win was secured.

That said, plenty of people will argue that Alastair Cook should have expected this, given what the forecast predicted. Still, there is plenty of time left, and there will hopefully be a dry spell later in the afternoon.

So while we wait for some more news from the umpires, let's have a look back at what happened in the 47 minutes of play that were possible during the morning session. It was a relatively entertaining period, with New Zealand scoring 61 runs for the loss of two wickets.

The tourists came out with a slightly strange mentality. Their intention is to save the Test match, but Tim Southee and Doug Bracewell attacked the England bowlers at will. There were three sixes during the short session, which was somewhat bizarre for a side who are one or two mistakes away from losing the match.

The latest from Headingley is that the rain is light, but persistent. Nothing has changed out in the middle, with the full set of covers currently in force.

The umpires and groundsman had momentarily assessed the conditions, but they didn't need much convincing to head back indoors. The clouds in the distance didn't seem overly promising either.

Returning to how the morning session unfolded, the England bowlers didn't bowl too badly, despite being hit all around the ground. Broad was consistent, and deserved his wicket, while Swann threatened with almost every delivery.

It was a little bit surprising that Anderson wasn't given the ball at some stage. The conditions suggested that there would have been some swing for him. However, I guess when he has only taken one wicket in 18.4 overs during the match, the other three bowlers deserve their chance.

It looks a little bit brighter at Headingley now, but the rain is still coming down at a steady pace. There looks to be plenty of discussions between the umpires and groundsman, but I wouldn't expect the covers to be removed in the near future.

I hope the weather is a lot drier for the upcoming Champions Trophy. It sometimes gets regarded as an unimportant tournament, but it would be a great spectacle if we can get two or three weeks of dry weather. England will also go into the competition as one of the favourites.

England will be pleased to avoid the likes of India and South Africa, but being grouped with Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka should make for interesting viewing. The Australia fixture will also whet the appetite ahead of the Ashes series.

The tournament will also be a good indicator for the ECB as to how they are looking ahead of the World Cup in 2019. It was announced earlier this week that England and Wales would host the competition in six years time, so it would be a positive sign if the tournament can attract some big crowds.

The latest from Headingley is that there continues to be no change. If anything, the rain is coming down more steadily.

This Test match is the last opportunity that England's players have had to stake a claim for a place for the first Test against Australia, which begins on July 10. If any, how many changes to the side will there be?

Much has been said about Nick Compton's form this summer, but I think that the England selectors will keep faith with him for at least the first two Tests. He has looked nervy since his two 100's in New Zealand a couple of months ago, but there was enough there to suggest that he has the ability and composure to deserve to remain in the side. However, there is no doubting that he will need to perform in that opening Test match.

Kevin Pietersen's selection is a near enough certainty, if he has fully recovered from a knee injury. The signs look good, after he posted a picture of him in action in the nets on Twitter yesterday. If Pietersen is fit, that means someone will have to drop out.

If everyone is fit, that will probably mean that Jonny Bairstow will be dropped from the side. It would be a tad unfortunate for the Yorkshire player after he has impressed with the bat during this Test match, but the form of Joe Root means that he is likely to be given the odd over his county teammate.

We have some developments at Headingley. The rain has eased enough for the umpires to instruct the ground staff to remove the covers. Keep your fingers crossed, everyone!

The news from the middle is that the umpires are hopeful that play can restart at 3pm, which given the amount of rain, is a lot better than I was expecting.

There are certainly still plenty of clouds hanging around though. I'm not getting my hopes up of play until I see Steven Finn with the ball in his hand, ready to complete his over.

I'd expect a lot more urgency in the field from England, if and when they return. They almost seemed to be going through the motions this morning, but I suspect the bowlers have been instructed to get through their overs as quickly as possible.

The players are currently out in the middle, bowling a few balls during their warm-up routine. There is a bit of rain in the air in the surrounding areas to Headingley, so hopefully that stays away.

Neil Wagner and Doug Bracewell will return to the crease on 0 and 19 respectively. Bracewell struck the ball superbly this morning, but I imagine he will be looking to defend considerably more during this period of play.

The players look ready to make their way out onto the field.

Finn comes in to bowl, and it is well defended by Wagner, before pulling the next delivery down the leg side. The next ball is better, but the left-hander avoids it easily enough.

Swann is on, and after Bracewell defends the first four deliveries, the spin bowler thinks he has his man after a loud appeal for a catch. The umpires gives Bracewell out, however, the decision is quickly reviewed and overturned.

It is raining quite hard at Headingley, but the umpires are keeping the two sides out there. It feels inevitable that they might be taken off though. Just the one run from the over, which came in the form of a wide.

England pick up their ninth wicket, and it is Doug Bracewell who is the man that has gone. Swann pitched the ball up, and it turned sharply for Bracewell to clip the ball to Ian Bell, who took a fantastic catch.

It is now a race against time for England. They are very close to sealing a 2-0 series triumph, but this weather isn't going to hold up for much longer. It is a maiden over for Finn, who didn't really threaten Wagner as much as he needs to.

That was an excellent over from Swann, but it reaped no reward. Boult is struggling with an injury, so he did well to keep his focus and prevent Swann from picking up his seventh wicket.

Wagner is yet to get off the mark off 25 balls, but he seems comfortable in dealing with Finn. It might be worth handing the ball to Broad or Anderson before tea, if we get that far.

It seems an eternity since we last had a run, but New Zealand won't care. Swann is flying through his overs, but Boult stands firm.

Wagner has the opportunity to run after guiding the ball through the covers, but he opts against it. Two balls later, Wagner edges the ball towards Alastair Cook at first slip, but it falls inches short of the England skipper.

Swann continues, but Boult continues to give nothing away. He has adjusted well to everything that Swann has thrown at him. Broad has been warming up for the last five minutes, so his arrival into the attack could be imminent.

Finn strays down the leg side, to hand Wagner another chance to get off strike, but he refuses to budge. That's 34 balls without getting off the mark. Cook looks frustrated. Three more balls pass by, and that is another over without a run, the eighth in a row.

We get our first glimpse of James Anderson today, and he almost finds the outside edge of Boult's bat with his first ball. He doesn't threaten with the next delivery, but he seals the game for his side with the third, Boult edging the ball Matt Prior.

That wicket has wrapped up a 2-0 series win for England, to give them the perfect preparation ahead of the Ashes series. James Anderson has also moved level with Fred Trueman in third position in the all-time wicket takers in Test matches for England.

At one stage, it looked as though the weather was going to keep everyone at Headingley for a lot longer than they probably wanted, so it was somewhat of a relief to all involved when Anderson struck.

The fact that England have won this match will hopefully mean that Alastair Cook won't face further criticism for not declaring sooner than he did. It wasn't ideal, but his side have got the job done, and they have every reason to be confident going into the rest of the summer.

That is all for our coverage this afternoon. Thank you for remaining patient with us, and we will be back on Friday for the first one-day international between these two sides. Goodbye for now.