Final place for Kiwis as England save face

NEW Zealand will face Australia in the final of the TransTasman Tri-Series despite losing to England by two runs in a deciding Twenty20 cricket international yesterday.

Captain Eoin Morgan returned from injury to help England avoid its fourth-straight loss in the series, scoring an unbeaten 80 from 46 balls and sharing a partnership of 93 with Dawid Malan (53) in England’s innings of 194-7.

Colin Munro crunched seven sixes in a 21-ball 57 and a 78-run opening partnership with Martin Guptill (57) that seemed to set up New Zealand for a successful run chase.

But outstanding bowling near the death by Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan and Tom Curran saw England hold New Zea- land to 192-4 in its 20 overs. Unfortunately for England, New Zealand only needed to reach 175 to ensure it qualified for the final on run rate as both teams finished the series with one win.

Australia had already qualified unbeaten in its four matches and is favoured to win the final, which will be played on the same pitch where it beat New Zealand by five wickets in the highest T20 run chase in history three days ago.

Morgan, who played the opening match of the series against Australia, then missed two matches with a groin strain, returned to reclaim the captaincy from Jos Buttler and produce a man-of-the-match performance.

But he was left disappointed that although it ended England’s losing streak in T20s, it was still not enough.

“It feels not that good to be honest,” Morgan said. “We obviously don’t go through to the final, which is disappointing.

“We created chances but given the start they got off to with Colin Munro and Martin Guptill in that sort of form ... we weren’t able to do it.”