{"id":501162,"date":"2026-06-29T14:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/501162\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T14:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T14:00:09","slug":"black-caps-v-england-result-new-zealand-spoil-ben-stokes-retirement-party-to-claim-test-series-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/501162\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Caps v England result: New Zealand spoil Ben Stokes\u2019 retirement party to claim test series win"},"content":{"rendered":"

This series win now sits alongside 2024\u2019s 3-0 victory over India<\/a>, and sets this Black Caps group up to become only the second team \u2013 after the great West Indian side of the 70s and 80s \u2013 to win away against all three of the game\u2019s powerbrokers, provided they can defeat Australia at the end of this year. <\/p>\n

Even after a chastening loss at Lord\u2019s<\/a>, the Black Caps bounced back to win the next two, despite the retirement of Kane Williamson<\/a> and absence of Matt Henry, Kyle Jamieson and Glenn Phillips for the decider.<\/p>\n

Say what you want about the victory at The Oval, defeating a weakened England by 253 runs<\/a>, the performance at Trent Bridge will go down as one of New Zealand\u2019s finest.<\/p>\n

While England were at full strength, a weakened Black Caps \u2013 who also lost Blair Tickner to concussion on day two \u2013 were able to fight back from a precarious position<\/a>, and rallied in the second innings, before a target of 373 proved too much for the hosts to reel in.<\/p>\n

Like it was at The Oval, New Zealand\u2019s win was built on contributions across the board. <\/p>\n

With the bat, captain Tom Latham and Devon Conway\u2019s 317-run partnership on day one<\/a> \u2013 both passing 150 \u2013 Daryl Mitchell\u2019s dogged 100 not out in the second innings, to go with an imperious 94 from Rachin Ravindra which defied the horrendous wicket underneath will all be remembered.<\/p>\n

And even without Henry and Jamieson, man-of-the-series Nathan Smith capped off a fine display with 2-64 in the fourth innings, to go with the game-winning catch, after Zak Foulkes (3-52) did the bulk of the damage late on day four<\/a>.<\/p>\n

No scorecard will ever show it, but Tom Blundell also cannot go without praise for his role in the series win, as his standing up to the stumps for New Zealand\u2019s fast bowlers left England\u2019s aggressive batting order uncertain, and eventually rudderless. <\/p>\n

Victory sees New Zealand third in the World Test Championship standings after their first two series played, climbing up one place from fourth after Sri Lanka\u2019s defeat to the West Indies, but still behind Australia and South Africa\u2019s points percentage. <\/p>\n

England meanwhile will be forced to regroup without Stokes, as they build towards next year\u2019s home Ashes series against Australia. Vice-captain Harry Brook looms as the likely new skipper, already leader of England\u2019s white ball side in a move that could just be a lifeline for coach Brendon McCullum.<\/p>\n

But with Stokes now gone, whether England continue with their hyper-aggressive style of play remains to be seen.<\/p>\n

Resuming at 103-4, 270 runs shy of victory, England had effectively handed the Black Caps victory late on day four, as a re-shuffled top order threw wickets away chasing quick runs, rather than look to bat deep.<\/p>\n

The overnight pair of Emilio Gay (10) and Joe Root (18) departed quickly to begin the final day, run out by Henry Nicholls and caught behind off Smith respectively, as any hopes of the most improbable victories dissolved. <\/p>\n

\"TheThe Black Caps celebrate Henry Nicholls’ run out of Joe Root on day five of the third test against England. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s momentum was halted by O\u2019Rourke having to depart with a hamstring injury in the opening hour, as the pair of Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson ate up 137 balls to add 75 runs. But on the stroke of lunch, Santner (2-54) trapped Atkinson lbw for 19 to claim his first wicket of the test, and leave the hosts 191-7.<\/p>\n

Nathan Smith struck after lunch, having Jofra Archer (2) caught behind to leave New Zealand two wickets away, as Jamie Smith went down swinging to raise 50 in 87 balls.<\/p>\n

Santner got his own back by running out No 10 Josh Tongue (2), before removing Jamie Smith for 60 \u2013 courtesy of an outstanding catch from Nathan Smith at long-on \u2013 to complete the victory. <\/p>\n

New Zealand 438 & 288-9d <\/p>\n

England 354 & 212 (J Smith 60; Foulkes 3-52)<\/p>\n

New Zealand win by 160 runs<\/p>\n

Alex Powell<\/a> is a sports journalist for the NZ Herald. He has been a sports journalist since 2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This series win now sits alongside 2024\u2019s 3-0 victory over India, and sets this Black Caps group up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1863,15361,7022,3021,42574,2741,250264,127,1634,29236,14909,117,111,43,139,69,37252,4762,12229,294,1963,84972,71294,765,61,8488,3270,6027,24529,80],"class_list":["post-501162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-back","tag-ben","tag-black","tag-bring","tag-caps","tag-claim","tag-crowethorpe","tag-despite","tag-england","tag-englands","tag-me","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overcome","tag-party","tag-result","tag-retirement","tag-series","tag-spoil","tag-stokes","tag-test","tag-to","tag-trophy","tag-we","tag-win","tag-wishes","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}