When the backs are against the wall, the only way out of it is by fighting back with flailing hands and flying legs. In the case of New Zealand, they just shut up shop and went into a shell like a turtle does at the first sign of trouble.

With 340 runs required off the last day, New Zealand had 10 wickets in hand and England had around 90 overs to bundle them up. They started the day with 42 runs on board from the previous day but lost two wickets instantly, much to their dismay.

Two wickets lost in the first two balls of the day, the second one of which was of their best batsman and captain Kane Williamson. It felt like being woken up by a 4440 volts electric shock instead of a plain and simple alarm. Heck, even being splashed by a container of cold water at 5 am on a winter morning is better than that.

Okay, maybe not, but the point now was: go for the kill now or stand back? In came Ross Taylor, the man who won the Kiwis many games on his own.

Surely, if someone could do it from here, it had to him? But nah, even he failed as he lost his wicket after scoring only 13 runs. It was a bit of an… erm… Ross Taylor-y short: courage coated with a layer of naivety.

Against the turn, the Kiwi star chose to play the sweep—something he had done the previous over—and had to pay the price with a top edge.

Nichols and Walting were the next to go as New Zealand were now staring at defeat with half their team gone.

Ah, sod this. It is time to shut up shop and hide in a shell and let them do as they desire.

So when Tom Latham fell about 10 overs later, New Zealand were batting at 162-6 and with around 60 overs still left to play. England needed four wickets in that timeframe. 

With a lineup consisting of James Anderson and back-to-form Stuart Broad along with the man who considers himself as Don Bradman, Mark Wood, England were the favourites to win the Test and draw the series and preserve their 34-yearlong series unbeaten streak against the Kiwis in New Zealand.

What happened after that, however, was something that the lower-order batters could boast about to their grandchildren. Colin De Grandhomme made 45 but it was not about the runs here—it was about the absorption.

How much could they absorb the brutal assault of the English bowlers? Grandhomme did it for 97 balls. That’s 16.1 overs. Bless his soul, but 16.1 overs out of 60 overs means that there was still a lot left to do.

And the players bestowed with that pressure were Ish Sodhi and Neil Wagner. The duo just formed a barricade in front of their wickets and protected it like their children’s lives depended on it.

Neil Wagner, in particular, played an innings that would have made Shiv Sundar Das proud. He consumed 103 balls to make only 7 runs and frustrated that the English to the point where it wouldn’t have been shocking to see dig holes in the ground and shove their heads in them.

But let us also take a moment to shower praises on Ish Sodhi. While the promised rain might not have fallen, what did fall was a thunderbolt on the heads of the English as Sodhi wielded his bat to make 56 from 168 balls.

The leggie batted 28 overs—almost half of last 60 overs—and saved the game for his team from the jaws of defeat. This is what Test cricket is all about: endurance, just pure freaking endurance.