Williamson asks his men to move on from Lord's defeat, look forward to next assignment

New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson advised his team to move on quickly from their five-wicket loss to England in the first Test at Lord's Cricket Ground.

The New Era of English Cricket started in a dramatic fashion as the Three Lions thrashed New Zealand by five wickets in the opening Test of the three-match Test series.

Williamson admitted that his side was expecting more assistance from the overcast conditions at Lord's on the fourth day of the Test match to deny England a win, but it wasn't to be for the visitors.

"The game ebbed and flowed throughout the whole three-and-a-half days, and there were some very similar traits. We were trying to take advantage of those, whether that was overheads or the slightly harder ball," said the New Zealand captain Kane Williamson after the defeat against England.

"We thought there might be some assistance from the overhead (conditions), but it wasn't to be," Williamson said. "It's about moving on quickly and taking the learnings. There's always plenty to take forward."

The visitors had the upper hand when England were reduced to 69 for 4 in the final innings on Day 4, but newly-appointed captain Ben Stokes and dependable Root stitched a 90-run stand to steer the team out of trouble and eventually made England win to take the early lead in the series.

The 31-year-old credited England and hailed Joe Root for playing an exceptional knock to help his team register a famous win and also achieving the special landmark of reaching 10,000 runs in the red-ball format.

"Credit to England, it was a game that was on a bit of a knife-edge, it was finely balanced, and we knew coming into this morning that if we could pick up a wicket early then, we know things can happen quickly here in England. It wasn't to be. We struggled to get the assistance that we hoped for and an exceptional knock from Joe [Root] there, that he's done so often and he does it again."

The second Test of the three-match series gets underway at the Trent Bridge Cricket ground in Nottingham as the Blackcaps will look to bounce back stronger to equalise the series.