Gus Atkinson's five-for secured England a hard-fought 115-run win over New Zealand on day four of the first Test, as the wickets continued to fall at Lord's.

England had looked set to wrap up victory on day three, but play was hampered by torrid weather, and the hosts wasted little time when play resumed on Sunday.

New Zealand were dropped to 55-5 at the end of Saturday's play, needing 254 runs to claim an unlikely victory, with only 9.4 overs played, and it took just seven deliveries for England to assert their control.

Josh Tongue trapped Tom Blundell (4) lbw, but Glenn Phillips, who finished unbeaten on 44, mounted a long-overdue counter-attack soon after.

Phillips, along with Devon Conway (41), added 53 for the seventh wicket, but Ben Stokes put a stop to that by dismissing the latter, with New Zealand on 111-7.

From there, the wickets tumbled once more, with Atkinson successfully stopping any momentum by taking Nathan Smith (4), Kyle Jamieson (6) and Matt Henry (0) to skittle the tourists out for 138 before lunch.

YES BOYS!

A winning start to our Test match summer

Victory by 115 runs at Lord's pic.twitter.com/ZeIdjrV39X

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) June 7, 2026

England's post-Ashes rebuild gets off to strong start

This was England's first Test since their 4-1 Ashes series defeat to Australia, and they got a much-needed victory on a poor Lord's pitch as both sets of batters struggled.

A wicket fell every 24.9 balls, the quickest rate in a Test in England since 1907, with only two half-centuries scored across the four innings (Harry Brook – 56, Emilio Gay – 57).

Of the 40 dismissals, 24 were either bowled or lbw, while neither captain opted to use a spinner.

Atkinson got his name onto the Lord's honours board for a third time, with his 5-30 rounding off a brilliant third performance at the ground.

Conway's 53-run partnership with Phillips was the second-highest stand of the match, while the latter's overall score of 78 was the highest of the match, but both teams have nine days to find solutions to their problems before the second Test at The Oval, which begins on June 17.