The Basin Reserve was built on land thrown up by an earthquake in 1855 and England’s return to the ground this week brings memories of last year’s seismic Test match flooding back. It was the rarest of margins, with New Zealand the second team in history to win by a single run, and for Neil Wagner, front and centre during its breathtaking climax, the goosebumps are yet to subside.
“It was just a sense of massive relief and jubilation at the end,” says Wagner, who with England nine wickets down and needing two to win, had Jimmy Anderson snared down the leg side. “Winning the World Test Championship [in 2021] was the pinnacle but that Test match, just one run in it, will also stay with me for ever.
“I’ll never forget the aftermath, too, the two teams out in the middle together until it was pitch black, playing ‘pig’ with a soccer ball and sharing a few cold beers.
“That’s the beauty of Test cricket. We all knew we’d been part of something special. It was hard-fought but we have always enjoyed each other’s company off the field. I will always cherish those moments with the England boys.”
New Zealand certainly cherished England’s generosity in the match, with Ben Stokes becoming the fourth captain to lose a Test after enforcing the follow-on. His plan for a quick kill and a 2-0 series win was supported by history, clearly, but, with two ageing seamers in Anderson and Stuart Broad, plus Ollie Robinson, a bowler since dropped for poor conditioning, it also offered a route back in for the hosts.
Wagner says: “I remember running off to strap on my bowling boots at the end of our first innings and I think it was Ben Duckett and Joe Root who said: ‘Relax mate, you guys are batting’. I was like ‘What? You guys are muling me.’ But I thought ‘yeah, glorious, this is the best thing for us’.”
Kane Williamson’s seven-hour 132 steadily turned the tanker around for New Zealand, but while that innings was a slow burn, England’s pursuit of 258 to win on the final day contained more drama that can be had from a Netflix subscription. And like some borrowed login details, it was also free of charge for spectators, with every single one witness to an epic.
Slightly manhandled by England up to this point in the series, Wagner bent the script to his will with those thunderous left-arm bumpers. The key was detonating a seemingly defining sixth-wicket stand of 121 between Stokes and Root. Having dragged things back after Harry Brook was run out without facing, both fell prey to the short balls to make it seven down, 56 still to win.
“They were playing a pretty brutal partnership,” says Wagner, who was at the start of what became a defining 10-over spell. “I was thinking ‘oh no, this is not meant to be’. But Tim Southee [our captain] said to me ‘Stokes is tiring, his knee is hurting, let’s go short and hard’. We got him, then Joe, and we felt right back in it.”
Not that the pendulum stopped swinging, with the ball seemingly following Wagner even when he was grazing between overs. He soon held Stuart Broad on the rope, only for Ben Foakes and Jack Leach to whittle the equation down to seven required. But then a second, tumbling effort from Wagner wiped out the senior man, Foakes, and brought Anderson, the No 11, out to the middle.
“Leachy pinched a single and then I remember Jimmy charging me from nowhere and absolutely crunching it though Kane’s legs for four,” says Wagner. “Credit to Jimmy, he is a world-class competitor, one of the best. I thought we were done again.
“In my next over, the ball before the final wicket and with two to win, I sent down a delivery that a lot of people still talk about.”
It was high, wide and could easily have been called as such by either umpire, be it Rod Tucker at the bowler’s end or Chris Gaffney from side-on. England, 1-0 up after the win in Mount Maunganui, would have claimed the series with a tie. Given the avalanche of sliding doors moments the 2019 World Cup final New Zealand were probably due one.
“I thought it was bloody good umpiring,” says Wagner. “It’s at the umpire’s discretion and my feeling was it wasn’t much shorter than others – even if, with the shoe on the other foot you’re probably not thinking that.
“It actually led to the next ball. I knew I couldn’t go up there again so it had to be lower and my plan was to bring leg-gully and short-leg into play by bowling into Jimmy’s chest. It was one hell of a catch down leg from our keeper, Tom Blundell.
“He had been amazing all day, standing up to the quicks for a lot of it. We’re not ‘express’ but we hit the gloves hard and he didn’t concede a single bye. It stopped them using their feet and pressured them. We always knew the way England play, they’d come hard and it would present opportunities. It just unfolded perfectly.”
Hoping for something close to a repeat this week is probably asking too much. While a good number of the cast are back, Wagner, like Anderson and Broad, has since called time on his Test career although the 38-year continues to charge in for Northern Districts domestically and may even be back in county cricket next year. The spirit that set up the rarest of margins is unlikely to ever truly dim.
