"It's been a challenging and difficult time for Kyle and a big loss for us," Stead said. "He's been fantastic around all of our sides when he's been part of them. We just wish him well and hope we'll know more in three to four months of what that end prognosis looks for him as well.

"A number of world-class players have had surgery in the back and it's different periods of time they recover. We just want Kyle [to get] the best chance of recovery because we know what a star he's been for us.

"Surgery provides a quicker return to play and that's the encouraging thing for him."

"The way England are playing isn't a surprise to us at all, but they are playing very, very well. And I guess for us it's finding ways we can counter that and I guess slow them down and the pace at which they're playing the game"

Without Jamieson or Henry, the Blackcaps went into the pink-ball Test with an inexperienced attack, featuring debutants Blair Tickner and Scott Kuggeleijn, and found themselves chasing the match from the start despite winning the toss.

Though England only posted scores of 325 for 9 and 306, the manner of their scoring - at 5.57 and 5.06, respectively - allowed them to dictate the flow of the match. That in turn gave them two opportunities to bowl at New Zealand's top order under lights, reducing them to 31 for 3 and 28 for 5 on nights one and three.

Reeling England in is easier said than done. This was victory number ten out of 11 under the watch of Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, carried out in a manner that underlined their ability to overawe their opponents by moving matches along at will. But Stead acknowledged that the focus ahead of the final match of the series was on using cues from the past weeks to somehow apply the brakes on their opponents.

"I think there's a couple of things that stood out to me during the Test. The way England are playing isn't a surprise to us at all, but they are playing very, very well," Stead said. "And I guess for us it's finding ways we can counter that and I guess slow them down and the pace at which they're playing the game.

"Look, they play at a pace that allows them to take key moments of that last match, as well. When I look at the positives, we bowled them out [nine wickets fell] in 58 overs in the first innings, and we bowled them out in the second innings. It's just how do you slow them down from the run rate they're going at. They were 230 for 6 in that second innings, so if you take four wickets for the next 40 runs you're batting for that period in the daylight as well and it could have been very different then as well. But they are the small margins that we work with.

"As I said, we don't try and get too high or too low around our wins or our losses, we just try and keep getting better and keep tuning up our performance."