When the final test of New Zealand’s 2024 series against England kicked off at Nottingham’s Trent Bridge, few pundits gave the understaffed Kiwi side a chance. The Black Caps entered the series decider missing virtually all of their standout match-winners: top wicket-takers Matt Henry and Kyle Kyle Jamieson, first-innings century-maker Glenn Phillips, and franchise totem Kane Williamson – the team’s all-time leading run-scorer – who had pulled out of the clash while the camp was based in London. Adding to the pressure, New Zealand had not secured a test win on Trent Bridge soil in four decades, and had fallen to a humbling defeat against England just days earlier in the series. On the opposite side, England entered the match at full strength, retaining fast bowler Jofra Archer over Ollie Robinson – the star of England’s opening series victory at Lord’s – to lead their attack.
Against all pre-match predictions, and despite even more injury setbacks unfolding during play, New Zealand walked away with a dominant 160-run win just after lunch on the fifth day, sealing a 2-1 series victory. This historic result marks only the fourth time New Zealand has claimed a test series win on English soil in 95 years of touring the country.
The story of this win is one of relentless team resilience and depth, starting on the opening day amid a British heatwave. Long written off for their poor run of form leading into the match, opening pair Tom Latham and Devon Conway defied expectations to put on a 317-run opening stand that set the foundation for New Zealand’s total. Early in the match, enforced change Blair Tickner – one of the uncapped replacements brought in to cover the absentees – was forced out with concussion after being hit by a high bouncer, forcing 26-year-old allrounder Zac Foulkes into only his sixth test match. Foulkes stepped up immediately, claiming three key wickets on day three to help New Zealand secure an 84-run first-innings lead.
A middle-order collapse that left New Zealand at 51-3 threatened to derail their progress, but 24-year-old rising star Rachin Ravindra steadied the innings, partnering with Daryl Mitchell to calm the dressing room and rebuild the total. Ravindra fell just six runs short of a century on the fourth morning, but Mitchell held firm, absorbing 13 blows to his body and gloves en route to his fourth career test century against England. The massive first-innings total left New Zealand with a 372-run lead heading into England’s second innings, putting the hosts under unrelenting pressure.
More injury trouble hit New Zealand on the final morning: senior seamer Will O’Rourke, who had already been playing through a split fingertip, pulled his left hamstring and was forced to leave the field, leaving a second-string attack to finish the job with England on 133-6. The ragtag group of replacements – Nathan Smith, Foulkes, travelling reserve Ben Sears, and part-time spinner Mitchell Santner, backed up by wicketkeeper Tom Blundell’s sharp work behind the stumps – rose to the challenge, wrapping up England’s innings shortly after lunch to secure the win.
The stunning result arrived alongside the sudden announcement of England captain Ben Stokes’ retirement from international test cricket, capping a dramatic final day of the series. Brendon McCullum, England’s head coach and former New Zealand captain, acknowledged the gulf in performance after the match, simply saying “We were outclassed.”
This win extends New Zealand’s outstanding recent away form: the Black Caps have now claimed eight wins from their last nine test matches played outside of New Zealand. Latham, New Zealand’s stand-in captain for the series, made history as the first skipper in the 21st century to lead test series wins in both India and England in the same cycle.
“Probably the most pleasing thing — different guys who have put their hands up at different times,” Latham told reporters after the win. Nathan Smith, who entered the series as the fourth-choice seamer in the Kiwi squad, finished the match with six wickets and ended the tournament as the series’ leading wicket-taker with 16, earning him player of the series honors. Daryl Mitchell, whose unbeaten century and five catches anchored New Zealand’s second innings, was named player of the match.
“To come here and do it in a style that’s true to us as Black Caps and as Kiwis is something we’re really proud of. It’s going to be a cool one to reflect on,” Mitchell said. “We’re a small country down the bottom of the Earth and it’s something that I guess we pride ourselves on is that we just get stuck into whatever’s needed to be done and try and get the job done. Sometimes it’s been pretty and sometimes it’s getting dirty and doing the little things really well.”
Former New Zealand captain Jeremy Coney, who led the first Kiwi side to win an English test series back in 1986, praised the current side’s unique team culture. “(This is a) different side than we had. But calmly resilient,” Coney told the BBC. “They play for each other. They care about each other. They’ve grown up together. If someone doesn’t have a good day, someone else fills the gap.”