Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root completed England's third blistering chase in a row to kick-off their riotous new era under coach Brendon McCullum with a series whitewash over New Zealand at Headingley.
Root barely broke a sweat as he finished with 86 not out and fellow Yorkshireman Jonny Bairstow continued the form of his life as he cracked an unbeaten 77 to seal a seven-wicket win and a 3-0 scoreline. “To walk away with a 3-0 win against the best team in the world is very special,” said England captain Ben Stokes after a dream start to his captaincy. “The team has been absolutely phenomenal, I don’t know how we’ve won that from 55-6.
It’s about the change of the mindset of the lads towards Test cricket. “To say that we have done it so quickly is unbelievable.
We’ve said we’ll go out and play a certain way regardless of the situation and it’s worked for us. Huge credit to Brendon and the backroom staff.” In keeping with their astonishing efforts over the past month, England needed just 15.2 overs and a shade over an hour to score the 113 runs required for victory, with a pair of local boys fittingly at the fore.