gutsy 100 not out<\/a> in the second innings helped his team set a daunting and unrealistic target for England.<\/p>\n\u201cSometimes it\u2019s being pretty and sometimes it\u2019s getting dirty and doing the little things really well. Just really proud of this group.\u201d<\/p>\n
New Zealand captain Tom Latham, a century-maker in the first innings, described the series win as \u201creally special.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo come out and play our style and stick to our brand as best we can, to me that\u2019s the most pleasing thing,\u201d Latham said.<\/p>\n
Stokes announced on Sunday he would be stepping down as England captain after four years after this test, and also retiring from the international game after 15 years with the national team. He didn\u2019t have an active role on Day 5 since he was dismissed for 30 late Sunday after opening the batting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would have been great to have gone out with a series win and a win,\u201d Stokes said, \u201cbut that\u2019s in a perfect world and this world certainly isn\u2019t perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
England leadership under more pressure <\/p>\n
It was England\u2019s first defeat in a home series of three or more tests since 2012. The team has lost seven of its last nine test matches, a streak that piles the pressure on the leadership team of coach Brendon McCullum and director cricket Rob Key.<\/p>\n
McCullum said he intended to stay in his role.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was some good stuff and I still believe that we have a firm direction of what we\u2019re wanting to do and how we\u2019re wanting to play, and what we\u2019re wanting to achieve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Root run-out was costly<\/p>\n
England\u2019s final-day hopes realistically rested on Joe Root and Emilio Gay \u2014 the remaining specialist batters who resumed from overnight \u2014 but they both departed in the fourth over, having walked to the middle with the boundary boards around the ground displaying the message: \u201cThank you Ben Stokes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gay (10) edged behind and Root, England\u2019s all-time leading run scorer, was brilliantly run out by Henry Nicholls for 18.<\/p>\n
A seventh-wicket stand of 75 runs between Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson held up New Zealand\u2019s charge before lunch, before Atkinson (19) was trapped lbw by spinner Mitchell Santner.<\/p>\n
The end came 15 minutes into the second session, when Smith was dismissed for 60.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP cricket: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/cricket<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NOTTINGHAM, England (AP) \u2014 New Zealand won a test series in England for the fourth time by wrapping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[131623,136206,16558,136149,234475,1634,234474,243813,171542,131625,162940,111,43,139,69,250364,213,249815,234609],"class_list":["post-501316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-ben-stokes","tag-brendon-mccullum","tag-cricket","tag-daryl-mitchell","tag-emilio-gay","tag-england","tag-gus-atkinson","tag-henry-nicholls","tag-jamie-xx","tag-joe-root","tag-mitchell-santner","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-rob-key","tag-sports","tag-sports-retirements","tag-tom-latham"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501316","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=501316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}