New Zealand Clinch Rare Hat-Trick Of Test Series Victories

Following Test series wins over West Indies and India during their successful home summer, New Zealand have now achieved a hat-trick of series victories for only the third time in their entire history. Victory in the third Test at Kensington Oval has given Brendon McCullum's team its third successive series win, a rare achievement for a team that has underwhelmed for much of the past decade.

Since 2004, New Zealand have won just 11 of 36 Test series they've contested, but six of those have been against Bangladesh (three) and Zimbabwe (three). The rest have come over West Indies (thrice), Sri Lanka and India. During this time, the best run they had was three successive series victories over Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe and West Indies from April 2005 to March 2006.

This run of success featured a 1-0 win over Sri Lanka at home, a 2-0 blank of Zimbabwe and a 2-0 win over West Indies. Their hopes of making it four series wins in succession were dashed in South Africa, where they lost 2-0. That sequence of wins marked only the second time that a New Zealand side had won three series in a row. The second was 20 years earlier.

Between November 1985 and July 1986, New Zealand beat Australia twice and in then succeeded in England. That run of form began in the Trans-Tasman Trophy in Australia, with Richard Hadlee's 33 wickets heavily influencing a 2-1 series win. New Zealand then won the return leg 1-0 and travelled to England where they emerged triumphant 1-0, with Hadlee again starring with 19 wickets in three Tests.

The next best sequence New Zealand have managed was in 2002-03 when they beat West Indies away (1-0) and India (2-0) at home, and then drew their next two Test series in Sri Lanka and India before losing in Pakistan 1-0.

This was also New Zealand's second win in the Caribbean, 12 years after they won in 2002.