'WE'RE DISAPPOINTED ... BUT WHAT A TESTA MATCH THAT WAS!

STOKES SUMS UP ENGLAND’S MOOD AFTER DRAMATIC ONE-RUN DEFEAT

- Cameron Ponsonby

ENGLAND lost the unloseable Test; and yet it was fantastic, as in one of the most dramatic matches in history, New Zealand ran out as one-run winners.

Throughout this new era, England have made clear that they will put entertainment first and results second. It is an ethos that had seen them win 10 out of 11 Test matches, but fall to defeat here in the most exciting of circumstances imaginable.

At the close of play, a reflective and exhausted Ben Stokes said: “Gosh, I mean, what a game! You just don’t know what to do with yourself, but I think at the end of the day if you can’t look back at that Test match and be quite thankful you’ve been involved.”

New Zealand’s winning moment came as James Anderson, who has never hit the winning runs in a Test match during his 179-game career, got a feather down the legside to a Neil Wagner delivery with just two runs needed to win, provoking wild celebrations from the home side.

“We’re obviously very disappointed that we’ve lost,” Stokes said. “We’d much rather be in New Zealand’s situation, but we always play giving ourselves the best opportunity to win. And when you have the mindset of giving yourself the best opportunity to win all the time, you have to lose games to really appreciate how good it is to actually win.”