ABJECT, woeful, embarrassing. Choose whatever adjective you want for an England batting surrender that has put them on the brink of their first home Test series defeat for seven years.
Joe Root’s men trailed by 85 when they bowled out New Zealand for 388 midway through the third day of this second and final Test.
It wasn’t a great situation but it might have been salvageable.
Yet a collapse for the ages that saw England lose seven wickets by the time they had wiped out the deficit leaves them heading for a first home Test series defeat since Sri Lanka in 2014.
A weakened New Zealand, who...