By Nick Hoult, Cricket Correspondent, at Basin Reserve It was not a victorious end to a great winter but it was unforgettable. England are entertainers but flawed too and that is why they are English sport’s box office team at the moment. They go home from New Zealand with credit in the bank despite defeat after one of the finest Test matches ever seen.
To lose by one run after enforcing the follow on does more to preserve the status of Test cricket as the ultimate form of the game than cantering home to victory. It was only the second time a team has won a Test match by a solitary run and three results were on the cards – a win for either side and a tie – as last pair James Anderson and Jack Leach tried to eke out the final seven runs needed when they came together. The fact they failed may be a good moment in the long run, a time when the management presses pause on their win at all costs mentality and the players learn that sometimes you need to dial it down to get Bazball over the line.
The result was the ultimate definition of how Brendon McCullum views the game: do your best to win, if you lose playing the right way, then fine. It would not be tolerated quite as easily if this had been the fifth Test at the Oval this summer and the Ashes on the line but England have achieved so much, and progressed so far since the misery of 12 months ago, that if they were going to lose then this kind of scenario can be forgiven. Those at the Basin Reserve will never forget what they witnessed on day five: England bowled out for 256 with last man Anderson caught down the leg side with two needed to win, one to level the scores.
Ben Foakes with 35 off 57 balls, adding 36 for the ninth wicket with Jack Leach, almost delivered victory but Neil Wagner's spell of three for 38 from nine overs of bumpers knocked England over. New Zealand became only the fourth team in history – the first in more than 20 years – to win after following on, levelling the series as these two sides produced yet another taut finale. The tension was almost as unbearable as the 2019 World Cup final and after what happened that day, even the most ardent England fan will not begrudge New Zealand their moment.
The resolve they showed in the face of defeat following on 229 behind and staring at a 2-0 series loss was Test cricket at its very best, fought over almost five days of gripping, absorbing drama. Fortunes ebbed and flowed like a current in Wellington Harbour as England at various points had the game in their grasp. New Zealand too appeared to be cruising when England lost four wickets in the first hour and were 80 for five when Harry Brook was run out without facing.
But Joe Root provided the poise and class while Ben Stokes grimaced and limped his way through one of those gritty, unglamorous innings he specialises in when England are backed into a tight corner. England’s senior core were seeing them home. Stokes held his knee several times and hobbled to the dressing room at lunch with his team 168 for five needing another 90 to win.
The target was trimmed to 57 but Stokes never looked convincing, swishing wildly at short balls and trying to up the scoring and get it over with. Tim Southee, the New Zealand captain, brought back Neil Wagner, who had been belted around in the series so far, for another blast of bumpers. A competitor, who never gives up, Wagner seemed to gain an extra yard of pace with the Test on the line.
He bounced Stokes from round the wicket, the England captain hooked it in the air, losing his top hand on the bat, to plop a catch to square leg. In his next over and with Root eyeing his first ever twin hundreds in Tests, Wagner banged another ball in short. Root went after it, trying to hit it too hard and skewed a catch to midwicket.
He threw his bat to the ground in disgust. England had lost two for one run. The nighthawk Stuart Broad flayed around but did not add much leaving Foakes and Leach the task of 43 to win with two wickets left.
Foakes was almost caught behind off the first bouncer he faced from Wagner but gradually settled into a nice rhythm, picking off a few bad balls, turning down singles to protect Leach and chip off the runs. New Zealand were jumpy now. Foakes became calmer as the innings wore on.
Leach was reprising his Headingley 2019 role with Stokes, playing sleeping partner, staying in and looking fairly assured until Foakes holed out to fine leg to set up that unforgettable finale. Harry Brook is named player of the series, Kane Williamson man of the match. And though people will carp at the strokes played by Ben Stokes and Joe Root, the frantic batting of Zak Crawley and Ollie Pope, Root's call that did for Brook, there has to be a moment, as cricket lovers who care about the game and its future rather than anything too tribal, when we say, "What a game!' and if you can't enjoy that, you have no soul.
NZ were magnificent. Wagner rolled back the years, Henry fought back from a back spasm, Southee kept his discipline and control. And do so by one run, joining England at the SCG in 1894, again at Headingley in 1981 and India at Eden Gardens in 2001, What a Test match! What a series! What a time for the wifi to overload.
What a game cricket is. Fantastic. Anderson c Blundell b Wagner 4 He gloves it through.
The previous ball, a high bouncer, could easily have been called wide but wasn't. Where's Ian Smith when you need him? NZ win by the barest of margins . .
. by the barest of margins. Leach ducks the bouncer.
The crowd, or the Barmies, want a wide. Not happening. Leach lets the next zip over off stump.
Four to come. Leach defends the third. Southee is over the wicket to the left-handers.
Leach ducks again. Henry saves a single at mid-off. Leach ducks once more.
Leach backs away for an uppercut but misses it. Two men are stationed at backward point and third man. Leach ducks the woolly bouncer.
Wagner decides to come over the wicket having bowled his two high bouncers for the over. Leach sways inside the line of the third ball. Leach winds up and top edges a single between Blundell scrambling back and third haring in.
Six to win. Anderson fends one down off his chest with his gloves and handle short of short leg. Anderson, charges, winds up and PULLS FOR FOUR! One to tie, two to win! Clever stuff from Foakes who square drives and hares back for two despite a slip when turning.
Even cleverer stuff from Southee who gets the right trajectory on his bouncer to make Foakes lose control of the hook. Anderson blocks the first of two balls left then fends the last down, short of short leg. Foakes c Wagner b Southee 35 Top edges a hook off a bouncer.
Good catch low down at fine leg! FOW 251/9 Wagner perseveres. The field is out on the hook and he tries to sneak the yorker through but Foakes jams it out. England's keeper turns down a single after cuffing the cutter to long leg, and another when he pulls to midwicket.
He has rolled his wrists well on that stroke so far. He takes the single off the fourth ball with a pull off his ribs to fine leg. Leach wears one on the sternum then ducks the bouncer.
Nine to get. Yes, chest pad. Leach dropped his gloves.
Leach c Blundell b Wagner What did it come off? Looked like his chest pad. Tea, due at 2. 40am GMT, has been delayed.
Southee serves up a wide, Foakes leaves a channel ball and then cuts Southee's shorter one for two. Not wide enough to get it away for four. Foakes opens the face to steer a single through point.
Ten to win. Leach has one ball to survive. Could the world's greatest 1* have an encore in a 0*? (Jinx alert!) Possibly, because he could have had a single with a tappy drive to cover but wisely stays put.
Foakes takes on the first two bouncers of Wagner's 13th over, flat-batting a pull over the non-striker's umpire for four and then, after hanging back for it, cuffing it in front of the other umpire for another. Wagner tries to get it higher, bangs it in shorter and balloons a wide. Again Foakes takes a single off the fourth ball with .
. . guess what? .
. . a pull.
. Leach has two to face. Two slips, gully, short leg, leg gully, short cover.
Wagner aims for the armpit and Leach leans inside it. And he does the same again with the last ball, this one from over the wicket. These two have put on 29, all of them to Foakes.
England need 14. Southee brings himself back on. Bracewell starts with a no ball.
Foakes can't beat the infield off the first three legitimate deliveries but then slog sweeps off the fourth for a single to midwicket. Heart in mouth time for Leach when he goes for a yahoo but is beaten by the turn. Just stay there, Jack lad.
Foakes takes on Wagner, pulling for four and then two and then one. Diminishing return but no England fan will give two hoots. Leach ducks the bouncer and sits on his bat handle at the end of another Wagner barrage.
Apologies . . .
wifi went down momentarily. Foakes cuts the off-spinner for two and then whisks a single off his pads via the inside-edge. Foakes takes on the armpit bouncer from Wagner but it gets up even higher and he swipes it off his chin, via the top edge, for four.
A more controlled pull earns him a single off the fourth ball for the third over running. Leach plays a late backward defensive with fielders poised and chirping in an umbrella around him and ducks the last. At double Nelson, ie most humans, England require 36.
Time for Bracewell to eke out the the tail? Henry pitches it up to Foakes who turns down a single but, like the last over, takes one off the fourth ball. Scott Styris and Mark Richardson are giving Foakes some gyp for hogging the strike but Leach edges the first ball he faces though the ball falls tantalisingly short of slip. Foakes pulls Wagner's first ball and turns down an easy single.
He then retreats to the legside to open up the offside so Wagner follows him and he can't get bat on it. He turns down another single to long leg. Foakes is taking it upon himself but he's still miles from home.
Now he takes the run, off the fourth ball. Leach wears one on the glove but it falls short of bat-pad. There are two catchers on the offside and two on the leg for him fending bouncers, plus slip, but he gets away with it and then Brigadier Blocks the last.
Broad falls first ball. Enter Leach, who ducks his first ball then fends the next off his throat. Next he shows us his backward defensive followed by a late decision to jerk out of the road of a perfume ball.
Delay while Williamson takes the helmet and Southee posts silly point and silly mid-off. Leach manages to pull his bat inside the line of the last delivery, a lifter outside off that flirts with the edge. Wicket maiden.
Broad c Wagner b Henry 11 Ramps a short ball down third man's throat. FOW 215/8 A couple of flaccid bouncers from Wagner are pulled for singles at the start of the over. Can he get it up again? Not yet.
Broad pulls two off his midriff over cover and scrambles home because the throw was poor. He swipes the next on the pull for a single, the ball still having not leapt higher than his waistband. Foakes sways inside the line of a leg-stump bouncer but pulls the last.
Leg gully stops him running. Henry bounces Broad, who backs away and slices an uppercut for four. He ducks the next short one and carves a cut for a single off the third, having gone to stand next to the square leg umpire.
Foakes plays a very late leave, withdrawing the bat when Henry straightens one from over the wicket to the right-hander and then drives but claws it back up the pitch. Strange that both Root and Stokes, having done the hard yards, have both succumbed to Wagneritis after they biffed him to the verge of retirement in Mount Maunganui. Root dropped his bat in exasperation after being lured on to the rocks.
After drinks Broad pulls for a single, Foakes does too, dropping the ball short of leg gully, and Broad completes the over with another pull for one. Root c Bracewell b Wagner 95 Oh dear. Premeditated pulling the bouncer, it didn't get up and he cloths it to midwicket.
FOW 202/7 Root tries to reverse scoop Henry, jumping front on and across but plays and misses. Blundell, standing up, makes a sensational stop even though he was blindsided by Root's body. Root drives a single to cover and Foakes defends, leaves and blocks the last with an angled bat.
After Root opens the face to drive a single through point, Wagner and Southee send three men back on the hook. Two balls of chin music do the trick and break the partnership at 121. Foakes is treated to a bouncer first up from over the wicket and ducks it.
He goes for the next one, though, and pulls out by the skin if his teeth, dropping his hands. Nope, it cleared the bat. Not a sensible stroke to such a vicious bouncer nonetheless.
Foakes c Blundell b Wagner Tempted to hook by a bouncer over his earhole. Did he hit it? Don't think so. Stokes c Latham b Wagner 33 He set the trap with three out, directed a bouncer at his shoulder and Stokes took it on on one leg and ultimately, after losing his top hand on the grip, with one hand, spooning it to square leg.
FOW 201/6 Five dot balls from Henry to Root and then the batsman skelps a single off his pads. They've scored 11 runs off the last seven overs. Bazball in reverse? Folk will be demanding refunds .
. . That's enough from Bracewell.
Southee brings back Wagner. Bracewell yelps when he thinks he has skidded a dart through Stokes' back-foot defences but the England captain manages to jam his bat down to chisel it out in the nick of time. Both he and Root add singles to their partnership by working the off-spinner to leg.
Maiden for Henry, unusually to Root who keeps him at bay with soft hands and that diamond of an eye. Bracewell comes round the wicket to Root, following Root's bowling method. He does pin Root from that angle but it couldn't have been in line.
Having lined him up, he flicks a single past bat-pad. Root takes two balls this time to milk his single, flicking Henry off middle and leg to fine leg. Stokes defends the rest.
Still on the march towards the top 10. Perhaps he will top the lot. Root reverse sweeps Bracewell's opener for a single.
It's as if the spinner just wants him off strike rather than trying to bowl him out. Sto
