P SPIN ON THE TEST

KIWIS A HARD ACT TO FOLLOW

NEW ZEALAND are just the fourth team in history to win a Test match after being forced to follow on:

1894, Sydney:

England beat Australia by ten runs.

THIS WAS just the second Test defeat for England under the Ben Stokes-Brendon McCullum leadership axis. Their record is:

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1981, Headingley: England beat Australia by 18 runs.

2001, Kolkata: India beat Australia by 171 runs.

2023, Wellington: New Zealand beat England by one run.

LEADING RUN SCORERS IN THE SERIES

Harry Brook, 329 runs at 82.25 Joe Root, 319 runs at 106.33

LEADING WICKET TAKERS IN THE SERIES

Neil Wagner — 11 Jimmy Anderson, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach — ten.

IT IS just the second time a Test match has been won by a single run, after West Indies beat Australia in 1993 at Adelaide. Chasing 186, Australia looked doomed at 144 for nine, but No 10 Tim May hit 42 and took them to the brink of victory with Craig McDermott (18), before Courtney Walsh had McDermott caught behind.

NEIL BOUNCES BACK

NEIL WAGNER hit back from recording the second-worst economy rate in Tests (minimum ten overs), with two for 110 in the second innings of the first Test, by guiding New Zealand to a fine victory in Wellington with four second-innings wickets.