"It was appropriate that Ben Stokes, whose struggles for so long seemed to suggest there was something rotten in the state of English cricket, took the plaudits here, his lusty hitting and menace with the ball embodied a more aggressive style of cricket shown by England in this game.
He noted "(New Zealand's) carefree and cheeky attitude to the sport which has helped reinvigorate national passions."
In the Guardian, Mike Selvey took a similar theme, describing Stokes as "a new hero for the next generation" and described the game as "a spectacular Test match, one of the finest in recent years and surely as good as any ever seen on this ground."
The BBC followed suit, describing England's victory as a brilliant turnaround, and suggesting they had regained public affection after months of turmoil.
The legendary England opener Boycott said England had found a new star in Stokes.
Boycott, writing in the Telegraph, has been giving England a solid basing of late but he went overboard in praise, while barely mentioning the other team. In the same paper, Scyld Berry believed that England could build a team around the "talismanic" New Zealand-born Stokes.
Paul Newman, in the Daily Mail, was already looking way ahead, and apparently past the possibility of a New Zealand reversal in the second test.
"Australia loom again and England have not suddenly gone from big underdogs to Ashes favourites overnight, but if they play like this, if they capture imaginations in this way then the public will warm to them, win or lose."
