England's mountain of runs in Wellington was evident. New Zealand is going to be buried in that mountain in the second test. They could not change their fate on the third day. The host team lost the series by a huge margin of 323 runs to England one match ago. The English team got the taste of winning the series in New Zealand after 2008.
Joe Root scored a century in the final session before bowling the Kiwis out for 259 runs. He took the field with 73 runs from the previous day and picked up his 36th Test century. Finally got out for 106 runs. After his departure, the captain Ben Stokes declared an innings of 427 runs for 6 wickets. The English captain was then batting on 49 runs. After that, New Zealand faced an almost impossible target of 583 runs. To that end only Tom Blundell has been able to show the fighting spirit. He scored a century in the last stand. After the tea break, the wicketkeeper batsman was dismissed for 115 runs. The Kiwi team lost 4 wickets for 59 runs at lunch. Blundell (115), Smith (42) and Darryl Mitchell (32) contributed to the resistance in the middle session.
Captain Stokes was successful in the second innings with the ball. He took 3 wickets for 5 runs. Chris Woakes, Brydon Kars and Shoaib Bashir took two each.
Summary Score:
England 280 (Brooke 123, Pope 66; Smith 4/86, O'Rourke 3/49) and 427/6 d. (Root 106, Bethel 96, Duckett 92, Brooke 55; Southey 2/72, Henry 2/100)
New Zealand 125 (Williamson 37; Atkinson 4/31, Curse 4/46) and 259 (Blundell 115, Smith 42; Stokes 3/5)
Result: England won by 323 runs.
Man of the Match: Harry Brook
