England fail to beat New Zealand to lose series and cap miserable winter tour in the most fitting way
England 307 & 352-9, New Zealand 278 & 256-8: Joe Root’s side fail to take the 10 wickets needed on the final day to slip to a 1-0 series defeat and a 13th overseas Test without a win
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Your support makes all the difference.After 35 days of cricket, it was entirely fitting that England should end their Test winter on a depressingly-familiar low note after they were denied a series-levelling victory by New Zealand.
Joe Root’s team needed to take ten wickets on the final day of this series at Hagley Oval to end a 12-match winless streak away from home.
However, they fell short, taking seven before their hopes were extinguished by a brave eighth-wicket stand between Ish Sodhi and Neil Wagner that spanned 31.2 overs.
By the time that was ended, Root having Wagner caught, there were a scheduled three minutes left in the day – the final hour having started at 5.04pm local time here.
Wagner, who was originally given out lbw, reviewed the decision to eat up valuable seconds and by the time Trent Boult was walking out to the crease, the umpires called the match for bad light.
England can have no complaints, they had 101.4 overs to get the job done on this final day and they did not help themselves either, dropping five catches in New Zealand’s second innings.
The hosts can point to the partnership between Sodhi, who batted for more than three hours for his unbeaten 56, and Wagner, who scored seven in 103 balls, for sealing their first Test series win against England since 1999.
Root and his players will be glad a miserable winter is over. This was their fifth loss in seven Tests across five months, including a bruising 4-0 Ashes hammering in Australia and defeat in the first match of this series in Auckland after they were bowled out for 58.
Their 13-match barren streak overseas is now the worst in England’s Test history and they will have to rebuild their shattered confidence and form ahead of their first series of the summer that starts against Pakistan next month.
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