GOLDEN WOANDER
Captain Morgan: Chris is England’s Mr Reliable... he’s our unsung hero
ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan hailed “Mr Reliable” Chris Woakes after his team edged out New Zealand by four runs in a thrilling third ODI to take a 2-1 series lead.
Morgan’s men can now seal this five-match series with victory in the next match in Dunedin on Tuesday to follow their 4-1 success in Australia back in January.
That they can contemplate such a scenario owes much to Woakes, who delivered after he was handed the responsibility to defend 15 runs from the final over.
England had made 234 on a difficult two-paced Wellington pitch but were in danger of throwing this game away despite reducing their opponents to 103-6 in the chase as home skipper Kane Williamson made a brilliant unbeaten century.
Spinners Adil Rashid and Moeen Ali caused havoc as they took five wickets between them in eight overs.
But Williamson’s seventhwicket stand of 96 with Mitchell Santner, whose runs had won a tense first ODI in the final over six days previously, swung this contest back in the balance.
However, Woakes, who had failed to deliver at the death in that match in Hamilton the previous weekend, made no mistake this time. “Woakes is Mr Reliable, he’s a bit of an unsung hero for us with bat and ball,” said Morgan. “I didn’t think it would be that close, I thought we’d either bowl New Zealand out or they would chase them. To stay in the game, stay switched on for that long – it was brilliant.
“It was a brilliant game of cricket. We took a huge amount of commitment and overthinking to assess this pitch.
“We just couldn’t get going. We knew we would’ve been in the game if we got somewhere
between 220-240.
Our spin twins did a fantastic job on a wicket that offered some turn. The pressure shifted a little bit with the Williamson-santner partnership. It was a very tight game and could have gone either way.
“We fought our way to a competitive total. The way we were going we thought if we played really well we might get 250 but I thought we were always in the game.”
Morgan top scored for England with 48 from 71 balls as his team batted patiently on a slow, sluggish surface.
The score of 234 didn’t look enough when Williamson hit a six off the third ball of Woakes’ final over.
But the paceman kept his cool to win a pulsating contest for the visitors.