“I thought our bowlers were pretty relentless the whole time.”

England was in a strong position from the first day when, after winning the toss, it had New Zealand 319-5 at stumps on a pitch at Hagley Oval which offered pace and bounce on all four days.

Kane Williamson held the New Zealand innings together with 93 while Tom Lathan (47) and Rachin Ravindra made solid starts but didn’t go on. Young off-spinner Shoaib Bashir took 4-69, bowling 20 overs in an unusually heavy workload for a spinner on the first day at Hagley Park.

On day two, Glenn Phillips completed a half century and finished 58 not out as New Zealand reached 348.

New Zealand removed Zak Crawley early but Ben Duckett made 46 at a brisk pace to set the tone for England’s first innings which was driven by Brook’s 171, his seventh test century.

England also was helped to its commanding position by New Zealand’s poor catching. It dropped seven catches, including Brook on five occasions, at 17, 41, 70, 112 and 132.

“If we isolate the first two innings, being put in on that sort of surface and to be in the position we were, we were happy with that,” New Zealand captain Tom Latham said. “The position we had them in, we had our opportunities. If catches go to hand things could have been different.”

Using Bazball principles, England added 180 in 33 overs on the third day at almost six per over.

New Zealand then slumped to 64-3 early in its second innings, losing Devon Conway, Latham and Ravindra cheaply. Williamson made 61, compiling half-centuries in both innings for the 10th time in his career.

But New Zealand was 155-6 at stumps on day three and while Mitchell’s gallant effort on the last day was impressive, it ultimately came in a lost cause.

The second test begins at the Basin Reserve in Wellington on Friday.