Leeds: Being 1-0 down in the series, New Zealand had a perfect comeback beating hosts England by 199 runs here in the second Test on Tuesday. Jos Buttler (73) – who was fighting a lone battle in the middle – was the last batsman to depart.
At one point, it seemed Stuart Broad and Buttler would save the series for England before Kane Williamson and Mark Craig rose to the occasion.
New Zealand was two wickets away from a series-tying victory in the second and final Test as England limped to tea on 206-8 on the final day at Headingley on Tuesday.
Alastair Cook (56), Moeen Ali (2), and Broad (23) were the batsmen to depart in the second session, leaving England needing to bat out 35 more overs to salvage a draw.
Starting the day at 44-0 and requiring a world-record fourth-innings chase of 455 to win, England lost four wickets for 15 runs in the first hour and went to lunch rocking at 152-5. Gary Ballance (6), Ian Bell (1) and Joe Root (0) all departed in the space of 19 balls during the morning collapse.
Part-time spinner Williamson was proving an unlikely star for the Black Caps with figures of 3-15, while offspinner Craig was tying up one end with New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum having the luxury of deploying adventurous field placings.
Jos Buttler was unbeaten on 40 and Mark Wood 10 not out, but England was running out of batsmen in its rearguard action.
Cook was England's biggest hope of earning a draw, and he continued his strong form by moving to 56 to become the youngest player ever to reach 9,000 test runs.
Cook didn't last much longer after that, though. He was late on a straight ball from Williamson and was given out lbw, with Cook failing with his video review.
Ali was bowled leaving a ball from Matt Henry that nipped back.
Root said England would go "all guns blazing" for the remaining runs needed to win the test. That didn't prove to be the case.
England crawled along at the start of the day, scoring 14 runs in the first 11 overs, before wickets began to tumble under a cloudy sky.
Defending on the back foot, Lyth edged Boult to wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi without adding to his overnight score. In came Ballance, who lasted 26 balls before Boult arrowed in a delivery that glanced off the batsman's pads and cleaned out the stumps. Ballance has been bowled three times this series, in which he has averaged 9.
Bell is another player short of form before the Ashes and he departed by nicking Craig to Williamson at leg slip after 10 balls. Since his century against West Indies at North Sound, Bell has scored 55 in eight innings, averaging 6.88.
Craig removed Root two balls later but it owed more to the amazing reflexes of Tom Latham at short leg. Root middled a shot that hit Latham in the chest, yet the New Zealand fielder still managed to cling onto the ball. Root looked gobsmacked as the Kiwis celebrated.
Stokes played fluently until he chopped at Williamson in his first over, and Ronchi took a sharp catch.
Brief scores: New Zealand 350 & 454/8 decl. (BJ Watling 120, M Guptill 70, M Craig 58*, B McCullum 55; M Wood 3/97, J Anderson 2/96) beat England 350 & 255 (J Buttler 73, A Cook 56; K Williamson 3/15, M Craig 3/73) by 199 runs
