It ended as series between New Zealand and England have tended to in recent times, the two sets of players sharing some cold ones and swapping stories on a sun-drenched outfield. Few teams get on better than these two once the cudgels are put down.
There was a little bit extra on this one, with the hugely popular Tim Southee having walked off the stage for the final time. Lauded by the great Sir Richard Hadlee at the presentation, and with his family at the ground, the 36-year-old was keen to drink in every last drop of what had been a victorious farewell on his home ground.
Though a consolation victory – with the Crowe-Thorpe Trophy won by England in Wellington last week and presented to Ben Stokes by Graham Thorpe’s family here – it was a pretty whopping one. Set an absurd 658 to win, England crumbled to 234 all out by 2.15pm on the fourth day when Brydon Carse was stumped off Mitchell Santner, the player of the match, and a hamstrung Stokes opted against hobbling out for a thrash.
That 423-run margin was England’s fourth heaviest defeat by way of runs, coming in the same year they lost against India by 434 in Rajkot which is second in that list. Here the result was pretty much baked in once Will O’Rourke detonated their first innings for 143 all out with a burst of serious fire on the second day. New Zealand, as Stokes said graciously in the aftermath, have found a seriously good one here.
As if to underline the point, the 23-year-old delivered another telling spell on the fourth morning that had Hadlee purring from the sidelines. It returned only the one wicket, with Harry Brook again undone by some nasty bounce to follow a golden duck with a score of one. But hitting speeds of up to 95mph, and making the ball follow the right-handers on the angle like a homing missile, the blows O’Rourke landed on Joe Root (box) and Ollie Pope (biceps) can only have contributed to their dismissals.
The same went for Jacob Bethell, even if the youngster had shown courage under fire en route to the third half-century of his maiden Test series with 76 runs. Relieved to finally see the back of O’Rourke, and having struck some pretty sweet boundaries against the others, Bethell tried to smoke Southee’s first ball from the City End only to skew it high to deep point. Like Root, lbw sweeping Santner on 54, and Pope, bowled for 17 trying to reverse ramp Matt Henry, O’Rourke deserved the assist here.
Pope’s dismissal after lunch was a pretty sorry one, eye contact in short supply as he trudged back into the pavilion. But like Brook, player of the series with two centuries (albeit now likely to lose his No 1 ranking), the vice-captain played a significant hand when the contest was live, with crucial runs from No 6 and his wicketkeeping solid. His issue, however, was that at the same time Bethell was shining brightly in his preferred spot.
How England approach things next year when Jamie Smith returns behind the stumps will be fascinating. And though Pope may feel twitchy about Bethell’s emergence, perhaps the player who should be twitchier is Zak Crawley after his personal, statistical nightmare against Henry. England insist they are happy to keep putting coins into this particular fruit machine but perhaps Bethell could move up. He has been practically doing so anyway.
In some ways this tour encapsulated England’s year as a whole: in credit – three series wins from five, having ushered in fresh talent – but with a few questions swirling also. One is how they see out series, this being the fourth time out of five in 2024 they have been defeated in the final Test. Stokes moved to scotch any suggestion that complacency had set in when the series was won, insisting that, having outskilled their opponents in the first two, the same applied in reverse third time. It did feel a bit like that defeat by Sri Lanka at the Oval, however, when the perfect summer slipped through their fingers.
Perhaps the biggest question, a hardy perennial, is whether Stokes can still perform his full duties as the keystone all-rounder. After two hamstring injuries since knee surgery last year – the latest of which was due to be scanned before the flight home – the captain insisted he very much can. If nothing else, Brendon McCullum, head coach and horse whisperer, may need to have word about the monstrous spells Stokes attempts.
This has also been the year that the seam attack was replenished. In hindsight, it may have been wise to give Carse some time off his blistered feet in Hamilton, not least with Ollie Stone having not featured all winter. But like Gus Atkinson, Carse has still shown himself to be a serious addition to the pack, with 27 wickets across his first five Tests and 18 here in New Zealand. If nothing else, those sore tootsies demonstrated how England cannot stockpile enough fast bowlers with two five-Test series coming in the next 13 months.
Economics have denied Southee the pleasure of these, even if with 391 Test wickets across 16 years, and with the glowing words of Hadlee ringing in his ears, he retires with few regrets. “It’s a nice way to fade out after an incredible journey,” Southee said, before making his way back out on to the outfield for one last cold one.
