Having been almost contemptuously dismissed in the first two games of the series New Zealand completed a hugely impressive fightback by winning the final game by six wickets to claim a 2-2 draw and propel themselves into the forthcoming one-day internationals in full confidence.
While Jonny Bairstow was the only English batter to truly excel, contributing 73 of their 175 runs, the Black Caps’ quality ran deeper. Of England’s top six only Bairstow scored at a strike rate above 150; of New Zealand’s not one dipped below it, with Tim Seifert and Glenn Phillips falling within sniffing distance of half-centuries while Mark Chapman was denied one only by his team reaching their target before he could get to his own.
There were moments of good fortune – Phillips let out a cry of anguish as he top-edged a Brydon Carse delivery in the 13th over only for the ball to loop well past the boundary, and two balls later Chapman also edged one, along the ground this time, for four – but also some spectacular clean hitting on a night when few of England’s plans came good.
One of them was for Jos Buttler to have a rest. Instead England’s white-ball captain was forced to don the gloves as an injury substitute after Bairstow reported a mildly painful right shoulder during his innings. Thus even the Yorkshireman, England’s one truly successful batter, had a night of mixed fortunes; many of his teammates did not even manage that.
Will Jacks added a 15-ball 16 to his previous efforts of 22, 19 and 11, his four innings between them comprising a muted shoulder-shrug of a series. None of Harry Brook, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran scored more than five, meaning the first of these at least did not add further fuel to the fiery debates surrounding his claims to a place in the World Cup squad.
Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone produced superficially near-identical innings of 26, off 21 and 20 deliveries respectively. Rehan Ahmed, making his first international appearance of the summer, produced a fine cameo, featuring one beautiful six over long-on and a selfless dismissal, running himself out to keep Livingstone at the crease.
In all of this Bairstow’s innings was a beautiful anomaly. The 33-year-old, making his first appearance for his country on this ground since the 77-ball hundred, 136 in all, powered them to Test victory over these opponents last year. With six sixes and five fours he sparked a few memories of that day – not least among those ducking for cover in the Smith Cooper Stand.
At 63 without loss at the end of the powerplay England would have been aiming somewhere beyond 200, but New Zealand found respite in spin. Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra restricted their opponents to 45 in their next six, and when Kyle Jamieson then returned for the 13th over it went for 18 – a calamitous reintroduction that featured three successive wides.
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Jamieson, having conceded 35 off two overs, was not seen again as Ravindra, who replaced Devon Conway in New Zealand’s only change, demonstrated the benefit of having a spin-bowling all-rounder in the lineup (this did not come as a surprise to England, who named four of them). In all England faced 10 overs of spin, scoring just 68 and losing six wickets, and both Tim Southee and Matt Henry returned impressively at the death.
The question for New Zealand in their run chase, on a ground notoriously batter-friendly, was whether they should take confidence from the ease with which Bairstow scored, or take fright from the struggles of his teammates. Finn Allen biffed the first ball of their innings over extra cover for four, Seifert dumped the fourth over mid-on, and their answer was clear.
Again the spinners shifted the momentum in the middle overs. Ahmed’s first two overs went for eight and brought two wickets, with Daryl Mitchell excellently run out courtesy of Luke Wood’s fine throw from deep cover and Ahmed’s smart work at the stumps, and Seifert caught by the bowler off a leading edge after scoring 48 off 32 and looking in fine touch. But England could not stem the flow of boundaries and a ragged performance had a fitting conclusion as Wood’s misfield allowed Ravindra to win it with 16 balls to spare.