Watch cricket video highlights of New Zealand tour of England 2024. 3rd Test between New Zealand and England. Venue of the match will be Hamilton.
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New Zealand equaled their greatest Test victory by the margin of runs, marking Tim Southee’s Test retirement, while England delivered their second humiliating collapse of the game. After a century-long partnership between Jacob Bethell and Joe Root, the innings collapsed in a barrage of strokes, and New Zealand was barely held over lunch on day four. Ben Stokes chose not to play due to a hamstring injury, therefore New Zealand needed just seven wickets to win handily.
In his final appearance, Southee finished with 2 for 34 after dismissing England’s leading scorer, Bethell, while Mitchell Santner collected four of them. At his home stadium of Seddon Park, he led New Zealand off the field to cap off a legendary Test career; additional time was needed to celebrate his departure due to England’s quick collapse. It ended a string of four straight home losses dating back to Australia’s visit in February and maintained New Zealand’s incredible recent record in Hamilton.
Where they had won eight of their previous ten Test matches dating back to 2012. Despite ending a difficult 12 months in Test cricket on a negative note, England had already won the series, their first in New Zealand since Southee’s debut in 2007–08. Their 423-run loss was only their second-heaviest of the year, following a similar crushing in Rajkot, and they finished 2024 with a P17 W9 L8 record. Bethell’s performances at number three were always strong, and he scored a third half-century in as many Test matches.
His combination with Root showed England were willing to make New Zealand work hard for the win, but both were bowled before lunch and there was minimal opposition from the rest of the batting order beyond Gus Atkinson smashing eight boundaries in 43 off 41. It appeared they had little desire to stay after lunch, as evidenced by the dismissal of Ollie Pope, who was bowled by Matt Henry while trying to reverse-ramp in the fourth over. In the morning, England had returned on 18 for 2, theoretically needing to chase 658 to win.
Batting out two days for a draw was just as implausible as that goal, but Root and Bethell made inroads, reaching a partnership of 50 runs in the opening nine overs. At times, both were lucky. When he was 20, Tom Latham dropped Root severely at second slip off Southee, and Bethell whacked Henry beyond his stumps as he was trying to drive. Will O’Rourke pushed his speed to 153 kph/93 mph in his second session, giving Bethell in particular a rough time from around the wicket. Bethell started at a run a ball and slowed as he got close to a fifty off 60 balls.
His partnership reached 100 at the same time when he hit the boundary with a single off Santner, who was then repeatedly removed by Root to raise his own half-century a few overs later. Santner, however, made the breakthrough after Root missed the ball while attempting to sweep and ended up stranded in front. The ball dipped beneath the bat before straightening down the line of middle and off stumps, demonstrating New Zealand’s clever review, however Ahsan Raza gave it not out.
When O’Rourke cheaply removed Harry Brook for the second time in the match, he received the prize his bowling had earned. After trying to charge his fourth ball, Brook, who had struck a golden duck in the first innings, was bowled out by his sixth, a snorting short delivery that he could only manage to slide. In the same over, Ollie Pope was hit on the arm after ducking under a bouncer, but Bethell persisted in his assault, hitting three fours off O’Rourke in five balls.
But after hitting Southee’s opening ball of the day over the head of mid-on for four earlier in the day, he sliced a drive out to Glenn Phillips at deep backward point in the retiring seamer’s second stint, falling while attempting to duplicate the feat. With Stokes still wearing his workout gear, Atkinson was summoned to the crease at the fall of the fifth wicket. He struck four of his first nine balls for four to provide an indication of England’s mentality heading into lunch.
After striking Santner for 6-4-4 in the over before to Pope’s brutal swipe, he continued in the same manner before attempting one slog too many. Then, in Christchurch in 2018, Santner completed the innings in five balls as New Zealand equaled their win margin against Sri Lanka.
