England’s hopes of a series clean sweep all but evaporated on Sunday as they capitulated on day two of the third Test to trail New Zealand by 340 runs.
With fast bowler Will O’Rourke firing the home side skittled England for 143, before the Black Caps reached 136-3 by stumps in their second innings in Hamilton.
It was easily their best day of a series in which they had been outplayed by England until now.
New Zealand’s controlled strokeplay in the final session was in contrast to some chaotic English batting between lunch and tea where they lost their last eight wickets for 66 runs.
“It hasn’t been our best day, it’s as simple as that,” said England assistant coach Paul Collingwood.
At the close, Kane Williamson was at the crease on 50 and Rachin Ravindra two.
Williamson put on 89 for the second wicket with Will Young (60) following the departure of captain Tom Latham for 19.
Scoreless nightwatchman O’Rourke gave England captain Ben Stokes (2-45) a second wicket soon before the close.
It was O’Rourke (3-33) who ripped out three key England wickets in a ferocious spell after lunch, before Matt Henry (4-48) and Mitchell Santner (3-7) instigated a late collapse.
Jacob Bethell (12) was the first to fall to O’Rourke, caught at point, before the towering quick prised out the ICC ranked first and second-best Test batters, Harry Brook and Joe Root.
After scoring match-changing centuries in each of the two big England wins, in Christchurch and Wellington, Brook lasted only one ball.
He played on to an in-swinger, prompting a roar of approval from the small crowd on a hot, still day at Seddon Park.
Root departed for 32 in O’Rourke’s next over, caught at point off a limp cut shot from a delivery that bounced sharply.
Collingwood conceded O’Rourke’s bowling had thrust New Zealand onto the front foot.
“I think we witnessed a pretty special hostile spell of Test bowling,” he said.
“The way that he really pumped his legs and got the energy out of the wicket and the bounce, it caused a lot of problems for us. It really broke us open.”
Santner reinforced New Zealand’s commanding position by removing Ollie Pope (24) and Stokes (27) in his first seven deliveries after the pair had put on 52 for the sixth wicket.
The last five wickets fell for nine runs but, ahead by 204 runs, New Zealand declined the opportunity to enforce the follow-on.
‘A big one’
O’Rourke was pleased to make an impact after struggling for his best form against England’s aggressive batting in the first two Tests.
“I was feeling good. My role on the team is to sort of run in hard, try to hit the pitch hard and I guess get something different out of our attack,” said O’Rourke, who gained particular pleasure from dismissing Brook.
“It was a pretty big one for us, he’s obviously dealt to us a lot this year so to get him out nice and early was pretty cool.”
England had reached 54-2 at lunch. Zak Crawley fell to Henry for the fifth time in five innings this series, caught-and-bowled for 21 to continue a miserable run of form.
The impressive Henry struck again in the same over, trapping fellow opener Ben Duckett lbw for 11.
Earlier, England took more than an hour to claim the last New Zealand wicket after the home side resumed their first innings at 315-9.
New Zealand faced a further 15.1 overs and scored 32 runs before top-scorer Santner was bowled for 76 by Matthew Potts (4-90), having added 26 to his overnight score.
