ENG vs NZ 2026, ENG vs NZ 1st Test Match Report, June 04 – 07, 2026

England 140 (Brook 56, Jamieson 5-62) and 226 (Gay 57, Smith 6-70) beat New Zealand 113 (Robinson 5-39) and 138 (Atkinson 5-30) by 115 runs

Gus Atkinson polished off New Zealand’s lower order to give England a comprehensive yet wholly unsatisfactory win on the fourth morning. An up-and-down Lord’s pitch made batting so treacherous that a wicket fell every 24.9 balls, the quickest rate in a Test in England since 1888; 24 out of 40 dismissals were either bowled or lbw, while neither captain used a spinner.

At 55 for 5 overnight in pursuit of 254, New Zealand’s hopes of securing only their second Test win at Lord’s were almost academic and they were bowled out quickly enough that the Sunday crowd were entitled to 50 percent refunds on their tickets. Glenn Phillips counter-attacked but ran out of partners as Atkinson secured his fifth Test five-for – and a fourth at Lord’s.

Atkinson took the last three wickets to seal England’s win but it was Josh Tongue who struck first, pinning Tom Blundell lbw with a ball that kept low from a good length in the first full over of the day. Phillips was worked over early in his innings – he edged just short of slip, then inside-edged a lifter for four – and quickly realised there was little point hanging around.

He watched from the non-striker’s end as Devon Conway was put down by Harry Brook at second slip, then crashed two boundaries in one Ollie Robinson over. England reviewed an optimistic lbw shout when Tongue hit Phillips on the pad and the bounce remained wholly unpredictable, as evidenced when one ball from Atkinson exploded off a length to take the glove.

Conway looked a long way from the player who had piled on a double-hundred on Test debut here five years ago, struggling for rhythm as he battled hard to survive. His 53-run partnership with Phillips was the second-highest stand of the match, but ended tamely when he skewed Ben Stokes’ length ball into the gully, where Jacob Bethell took a sharp, low catch.

Atkinson then took over, overcoming a build-up interrupted by concussion to occasionally hit speeds of 90mph/145kph. He had Nathan Smith caught behind third ball, Kyle Jamieson chipping to short midwicket, and flattened Matt Henry’s middle stump as Phillips – whose 78 runs were the most in the match – got stuck at the non-striker’s end.

It extended Atkinson’s remarkable relationship with Lord’s. He took 12 wickets against West Indies to upstage James Anderson’s farewell on his debut two years ago, hit a hundred and took another five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka later that summer, and his latest five-for took his record at the ground to 26 wickets at 9.50 across six bowling innings.

Yet that was not enough to secure him the player-of-the-match award, which instead went to Robinson. On his England comeback after two-and-a-half years in the wilderness, Robinson returned career-best match figures of 7 for 77 and took his overall Test bowling average below 22. “I know that this is just the start,” he insisted.

England’s only concern was the result after their 4-1 hammering in Australia this winter, but they will know that this win proves very little. New Zealand have nine days to reflect before the second match of the series at The Oval on June 17, which is closely followed by the third and final Test at Trent Bridge on June 25.

Tom Latham, their captain, rued a series of missed opportunities in the field: four dropped catches, a chance that he and Daryl Mitchell left for one another, and a costly decision not to review an appeal that would have seen Emilio Gay given out lbw on 24 during his 57, which proved the highest score of the match. “With the game being so short, those small moments are really important,” he said.

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