New Zealand [180/7] beat England [166/7] by 14 runs in 3rd T20I, lead series 2-1

The Viper

T20I Debutant
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Rejuvenated New Zealand, determined England look to seize early advantage

Overview

New Zealand v England, 3rd T20I
Saxton Oval, Nelson
Tuesday, 5 November; 2:00pm local, 1:00am GMT

After being outplayed in the series opener, the hosts, aided by a collective bowling performance, made a strong comeback, registering a 21-run win in the second game in Wellington on Sunday, 3 November. Martin Guptill and James Neesham starred with major contributors, as New Zealand racked up 176/8 after being put in to bat. The major concern, though, would be the fact that none of their batsmen has been able to cross the 50-run mark in the series as yet, something that didn't allow them to put up an imposing total while batting first in both games.

Mitchell Santner, New Zealand's leading bowler in MRF Tyres ICC T20I Bowling Rankings, has lived up to expectations, grabbing six wickets from two outings, but can the other bowlers support him enough to help the Black Caps replicate their success from the previous game?

England, on the other hand, would be pleased that the relatively inexperienced bowling lot came good for the second consecutive time in the series. It was the lack of responsibility shown by the batters that allowed the hosts crawl their way back. They'll expect a lot more from the experienced Jonny Bairstow, who hasn't been able to build on the good form he showed in the warm-up game that preceded the series, where he scored an unbeaten 78.

Chris Jordan's blitz late in the innings was a positive sign, but skipper Eoin Morgan would expect more from himself and his deputy Sam Billings, in the finishing stage of the innings.

Remember the last time

Morgan won his second straight toss in the series, and the young Sam Curran responded with the early wicket of Colin Munro in only the third over of the innings. Guptill (41), though, found support in Tim Seifert, Ross Taylor and Colin de Grandhomme, as he took New Zealand to 96/1 at the halfway stage. England, led by Chris Jordan's excellence at the death, checked the run-flow to some extent, but Neesham's stroke-filled 42 off 22 balls took the hosts to 176/8 at the end of 20 overs.

England's chase was dented by the early wickets of Bairstow and James Vince, before Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan began resurrecting the innings. However, their untimely wickets pushed them further behind in the contest. Jordan revived hopes with three fours and as many sixes during his 19-ball 36, but it was all too late by then.

What they said

Tim Southee, New Zealand captain: "We executed our plans a little better, we need to keep changing depending on the ground and the sizes. We'll chop and change sides when we get to Nelson. We are always looking to get better. There is still scope for improving in all three areas, but if we can keep playing the brand of cricket we like, then we'll go in the right direction."

Eoin Morgan, England captain: "A lot of things can happen between games. We need to keep a nice aggressive mindset, and maintaining it is important, especially with a young side. It is important to learn from mistakes and come back strong."

Conditions

A moderate breeze, with mostly overcast conditions (93% cloud cover), is expected in Nelson on Tuesday. The only T20I played here previously dates back to December 2017, when New Zealand outclassed West Indies by 47 runs.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/1482501
 
Teams:

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Colin de Grandhomme, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee (capt), 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Blair Tickner

England: 1 Dawid Malan, 2 Tom Banton, 3 James Vince, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Lewis Gregory, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran 9 Saqib Mahmood, 10 Matt Parkinson, 11 Pat Brown
 
This Saqib Mehmood guy is the ultimate brainless bowling machine, went for 46 in the first game and 49 today. That other guy Brown isn't much to write home about either. England need to recruit elsewhere.
 
England - 83/1 after 9.2 overs (target is 181).

England are favorites currently.
 
England - 105/2 after 12 overs.

They are cruising at the moment. NZ need something special.
 
England - 140/3 after 15.1 overs.

They need 41 runs from 29 balls. Advantage England.
 
England - 144/4 after 16.3 overs.

36 runs needed from 20 balls. Tight game.
 
Vince gone, NZs game to lose. Morgan should've stayed with Vince till the end but got greedy even though he had hit 2 6s already in the over. Eng have a very long and inexperienced tail.
 
England choked. They had this game in the bag.

NZ - 180/7.
England - 166/7.

NZ win by 14 runs.
 
England choked.

A bad week for England after thinking they had conquered world sport a week earlier.
 
Good for Pakistan. Now even a 2-0 defeat to Australia in the T20 series won't affect the T20i rankings.
 
New Zealand produced a top-class display of death-overs bowling to deny a rampant England and go 2-1 up in the five-match series at Nelson’s Saxton Oval on Tuesday, 5 November.

VIEW MATCH CENTRE

Having racked up 180/7 on the back of another bruising batting display from Colin de Grandhomme (55), New Zealand were on the mat, with England cruising in the chase at 139/2 in the 15th over, requiring 42 off the last 31 balls, with eight wickets in hand.

But Eoin Morgan, having already punched Mitchell Santner for two sixes in the over, dared to take on the left-arm spinner one more time, off the last ball of the over, but slogged him into the hands of cow corner. Having been afforded the slightest of openings, New Zealand proceeded to kick the door down, snaring five wickets for ten runs, and consigning a rattled England to a 14-run defeat.

Morgan’s dismissal ended a 49-run third-wicket stand with James Vince that had seemed set to carry England to victory. Following Morgan to the crease was Sam Curran, who had faced a total of six balls in the series prior to this game, for nine runs. Sensing the opportunity to go for the kill, Tim Southee, the New Zealand captain, brought himself back on and the early signs of disarray emerged.

Having collected three singles off the first three balls of the over, Billings called for a single, only to be sent back by Vince. To his misfortune, the side on the field was New Zealand, who routinely convert quarter-to-half chances, and make impossibly tough catches and superhuman feats of athleticism appear commonplace. In this instance, it resulted in Colin Munro rushing in from backward point and swooping down in front, with one stump to aim at, and felling them with a direct hit.

The three-run over had pushed the required run rate back up towards the 10-run mark. Blair Tickner, in his second game as an international cricketer, tightened the screws by conceding just five runs, including a wide, off the first five balls of the 17th over, and off the last, struck the most decisive blow when Vince unleashed an uppish drive and picked out mid-off.

Lockie Ferguson’s double-strike in the 18th pushed England further up against a wall, and from there, the choke was well and truly on. In all, England managed just one boundary – a six – in the last 34 balls of the chase.

It was far from how they had begun, with Tom Banton unfurling a series of boundaries at the start. Though he fell as early as in the third over, he had set the tone for England by then, with 27 on the board. Dawid Malan and Vince then used the platform to consolidate with a second-wicket stand of 63. When it did eventually end, it was to a harmless full toss from Ish Sodhi that was mistimed into the hands of deep midwicket, and that was the first sign that things were about to go awry for England.

New Zealand had begun much in the same fashion, with Guptill continuing his strong form to raze 33 of 17 balls and dominate a first-wicket stand of 40 with Munro. New Zealand lost both their openers inside the Powerplay, and Tim Seifert by the eighth over, whereafter de Grandhomme reconstructed the innings in the company of Ross Taylor.

Their fourth-wicket stand of 66 was the highest of the innings, and paved the way for Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner to do their thing, as New Zealand biffed 44 runs in the last five overs to finish with a match-winning total.

https://www.icc-cricket.com/news/1483172
 
Excellent performance by a reserve England side. To push a nearly first-choice NZ at home without several frontline players exhibits their depth of talent in Limited Overs cricket at the moment.
 
I am more interested in the rebuilt test side which features several guys who should have appeared in the Ashes.
 
Excellent performance by a reserve England side. To push a nearly first-choice NZ at home without several frontline players exhibits their depth of talent in Limited Overs cricket at the moment.
More like these fringe players like Malan and Vince are useless and will never amount to anything in international cricket.

Banton is a wonderful talent. That crunch off a Ferguson 92 MPH thunderbolt was top notch.
 
Excellent performance by a reserve England side. To push a nearly first-choice NZ at home without several frontline players exhibits their depth of talent in Limited Overs cricket at the moment.
Guptill and Munro aren't even in form and Lockie is returning from injury, give it a break.
 
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