Tom Latham held his bat in his left hand and raised both arms in joy as he ran towards the non-striker's end, celebrating the runs that brought him a long-awaited first Test hundred in England. He removed his helmet to reveal his hair was matted with sweat on a baking hot summer's day, and beamed from ear to ear as his team-mates cheered on the balcony.
It was a typical Latham shot, tucked off his pads, that brought him to three figures. He is not always easy on the eye - he scored 10 of his 15 boundaries behind square on Thursday - and rarely puts fans on the edge of their seats, but there is something quintessentially Kiwi about his tenacity, his determination and his professionalism.
He relished his team's "old-school" cricket in their dominant win at The Oval last week, and challenged them to raise the bar even further in Nottingham. After scores of 3, 0, 27 and 4 in the series, he rose to the occasion of the series decider and enjoyed a near-perfect day, winning a vital toss under bright sunshine before leading the way with 151.
Latham's opening partnership with Devon Conway was worth 317, their second mammoth partnership in six months after piling on 323 against West Indies in December. They hardly gave England a sniff between them: at drinks in the final session, Sky Sports' package of 'England's missed chances' featured only two balls, a missed lbw review and Jamie Smith's drop off Conway.
When Latham finally edged Ben Stokes behind for 151, the stump microphones picked up his self-admonishment - "no!" - just before the Trent Bridge crowd went up in celebration. He sounded genuinely anguished not to have inflicted more pain on England's fielders, a reflection of the high standards required to survive as a Test opener for over a decade.
"Even as a young guy, he had an old head on his shoulders," recalled Luke Ronchi, who overlapped with Latham in his own international career and is now New Zealand's batting coach. "He's always understood the way he wants to play his cricket; he's known how to bat for long periods of time as a batter in domestic cricket and he's taken that into international cricket."
Latham was a wide-eyed 18-year-old when he first came to England in 2010, half a lifetime ago. He spent the New Zealand winter as Gateshead Fell's overseas player, breaking the club's record for most runs in a season, and also turned out for Durham's academy. He became friends with a young Mark Wood, who gave him lifts to training sessions.
Latham's stint was part of an exchange programme which saw Canterbury host Scott Borthwick - the one-cap England legspinner who is now a Durham coach and spent last week throwing balls to Stokes in the nets. He left a lasting impression, to the extent that Durham brought him back years later as their overseas player, including a spell as white-ball captain in 2018.
But he had never quite cracked playing in England - not at Test level, at least. This is Latham's fourth Test tour of England, and his aggregate across his first 20 innings was 428 runs at 22.52. He made 59 at Lord's and 84 to help set up a series-levelling win at Headingley in 2015, but had managed only one further half-century across tours in 2021, 2022 and 2026.
It reflected a broader trend in Latham's career. He has always thrived at home in New Zealand, where his average of 44.35 - with 10 hundreds - reflects his knowledge of conditions and ability to bed in on flat pitches. But he had never previously made a hundred in Australia, England, India or South Africa in 51 attempts.
He has struggled to shift his reputation as a flat-track bully but that pejorative term ignores the fact that Test hundreds as an opener are always hard-earned. Since his debut in 2014, only David Warner (20) has scored more of those than Latham's 17. "You've still got to go out there and score the runs," Tim Southee, England's bowling coach, said.
Latham only took over from Southee as New Zealand's permanent Test captain just over 18 months ago, but has led his team to a famous series win in India and is four productive days away from another impressive victory here. England may be at a low ebb, but they have not lost a home series of three or more Tests since 2012.
He deserves huge credit for helping New Zealand overcome the shock mid-series retirement of Kane Williamson after the first Test at Lord's. New Zealand have evolved significantly under his leadership, bringing through young seamers like Nathan Smith and Will O'Rourke, while the likes of Tom Blundell, Matt Henry and Daryl Mitchell have become senior players.
"As a leader of this team, he wants to lead from the front and do what other batters and other leaders have done in the past," Ronchi added, alluding to Williamson, Stephen Fleming and Brendon McCullum. "He sticks to his style. He knows what he wants. He knows his scoring areas and the way he'd like to feel when it's working well."
In 2022, Latham looked lost as stand-in captain when Stokes and Jonny Bairstow belted his seam attack around Trent Bridge as England romped to a fourth-innings target of 299 to give life to their new era. Four years on, his resolute hundred might have laid the foundations for a win that could bring that same era to a close.