Ben Stokes saw his international career end in defeat, watching from the balcony as his England side surrendered the series decider against New Zealand to mark the end of an era.
After the sugar rush drama of Sunday, when news of Stokes’ retirement broke mid-session and dominated the agenda, Trent Bridge witnessed the comedown of a 160-run defeat in the third Rothesay Test.
This time there were no surprises left, England simply put away by an opposition too good, too professional and too hungry to let them off the hook or hand the outgoing skipper his fairytale finish.
England were bowled out for 212 midway through the final day to go down 2-1 – their first home series defeat since Stokes and head coach Brendon McCullum took charge four years ago. Not since 2012 have England lost a home series of at least three matches, a result that spelled the end of Andrew Strauss’ captaincy.
As well as a considerable legacy of his own, Stokes leaves behind a team that has developed a damaging losing habit, beaten seven times in their last nine Test outings, including a watershed 4-1 Ashes defeat in the winter.
Whether he is the only casualty of that sorry sequence remains to be seen, but McCullum and managing director Rob Key will need to oversee a sharp improvement to remove question marks over their future.
