England suffer day-nightmare as humiliation in New Zealand sees them fall to lowest point of a testing winter

It would have taken a brave person to predict that the lowest point of England’s nightmare Test winter would come in New Zealand.

After their 4-0 mauling by Australia in the Ashes, this two-match series was meant to be a fresh start for Joe Root’s team, an opportunity, as the captain had said before the match, to “change our momentum going into the summer”.

Instead, England flirted with humiliation of historic proportions as they were bowled out for just 58 inside the first session of this opening day-night Test at Eden Park.

Indeed, when they were 27-9, it looked certain they would post the lowest total in their 141-year Test history.

The score to beat was the 45 a team captained by Arthur Shrewsbury were routed for against Australia in Sydney back in 1887.

Only an unbeaten innings of 33 by Craig Overton, picked as cover after all-rounder Ben Stokes was unable to fully satisfy team medics he could bowl, rescued Root’s men from complete ignominy.

Instead, this was only the sixth-lowest in England’s Test history – something that can be seen as a major win given how desperate things were at one stage.

And that’s despite the fact they were blown away in 94 minutes during an innings that lasted just 20.4 overs.

Even England’s official Twitter feed admitted: “We’ve had a shocker.”

But the escape from statistical shame cannot mask the bigger picture.

Despite the dodgy weather forecast for the next couple of days, England have surely already lost this Test and will extend a miserable sequence without an away win to 12 after a session that was as abject as anything in their extensive back-catalogue of cricketing ineptitude.

Trent Boult was the chief destroyer, the left-arm seamer bowling beautifully to take a career-best 6-32. Tim Southee had a relatively modest return of 4-25 in comparison as New Zealand’s new-ball pair became only the eighth in history to bowl unchanged throughout an entire Test innings.

As good as Boult was – and Alastair Cook and Root were the victim of magnificent deliveries early on – England were shambolic.

Pressure was applied by Boult’s early excellence, but the way the tourists folded in the face of it was embarrassing.

England's collapse in numbers

Here are five key stats from the tourists' innings

• 58: The innings total - England recorded the joint 32nd lowest Test innings total of all time and their sixth lowest
  

• 124: The number of balls faced by England - the 16th shortest Test innings of all time
  

• 5: The number of ducks in the innings - only four Test innings have seen more
  

• 56.9: The percentage of England's runs scored by Craig Overton (33) - the 43rd highest in Test history
  

• 15: The number of Tests in which only two bowlers were needed to dismiss a side - Trent Boult had six and Tim Southee added four in 20.4 overs against England

Lack of match practice, England only had a pair of two-day warm-up matches before this series, and a rejigged batting line-up that saw Root move up to No3 after James Vince was dropped, can only explain so much.

In truth, there can be no excuses, especially after the hosts reached the close on 175-3 to prove there are no demons in this Auckland pitch.

Their reply was led brilliantly by captain Kane Williamson, who finished the day nine runs short of a New Zealand-record 18th Test century to help his side to a lead of 117 by stumps.

This is rather a continuation of England’s woeful overseas Test form – albeit an extreme example of just how bad they have become.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised by this horror show given England lost 14 wickets in a single day during their pink-ball warm-up match against a New Zealand XI in Hamilton last week.

Yet this was still a shock.

Cook, squared up by a full delivery, and Root, bowled by an inch-perfect in-swinger, fell in the space of seven Boult balls to leave their side 6-2.

That became 18-4 when Dawid Malan and Mark Stoneman both edged behind, the latter off Southee, the former off Boult.

Stokes, failing to score in his first Test innings for six months, was bowled by Southee and Jonny Bairstow, also registering a duck, then played a poor shot as he was caught and bowled by Southee as England subsided to 18-6.

Chris Woakes, bowled as Boult sealed a five-wicket haul, and Moeen Ali, missing a full Southee delivery, were the next to depart, England now a barely-believable 23-8.

Stuart Broad, the victim of a stunning Williamson catch at gulley off Southee, became the fifth duck of the innings with England still 19 runs away from passing their record low total of 45.

Yet Overton’s batting heroics, the Somerset man’s innings accounting for more than half of England’s runs, helped his team avoid unwanted history before Boult wrapped up the innings with the dismissal of James Anderson.

England should have had a wicket with the very first ball of New Zealand’s reply, substitute fielder Liam Livingstone missing the stumps with Tom Latham out of his ground.

Broad, seeking his 400th Test wicket, then had Jeet Raval dropped on two by Root at second slip.

Anderson did dismiss Raval before dinner, the opener edging behind as the hosts went into the second interval on 88-1.

England’s bowlers did start to make things happen under lights in the final session, Broad finally getting Test wicket number 400 when Latham chipped to midwicket and Anderson having Ross Taylor caught on 20.

In between, Woakes thought he had run Williamson run out on 64 when he deflected the ball onto the stumps with the batsman out of his ground at the non-striker’s end.

Instead, he survived to help his team take a vice-like grip on this Test.