Black Caps hit for six as Jonny marches home
New Zealand’s poor record in crunch ODI series’ deciders was again badly exposed as they were embarrassed by England yesterday.
England captured the five-match series 3-2 in front of a 9012 sellout at Christchurch’s Hagley Oval with a crushing seven-wicket victory, chasing down their target of 224 inside 32.4 overs.
The Black Caps never recovered from the absence of veteran batsman and game four hero Ross Taylor, who was unable to shake off a thigh injury in time.
Taylor starred in last Wednesday’s five-wicket win in Dunedin to level the series, hitting a brave 181 not out, while battling cramp and an ongoing thigh issue, which he aggravated diving to complete a second run on 109.
Sent in yesterday, New Zealand could have desperately used Taylor’s experience and class, losing Colin Munro to the third ball of the innings and quickly slumping to 79-5.
That became 93-6 when Colin de Grandhomme was again out meekly, caught at long-on for six when he needed to stick around and provide some grit.
New Zealand had Henry Nicholls and Mitchell Santner to thank for getting them to 223, courtesy of a valiant 84-run seventh-wicket stand.
England got off to a flyer in reply with Jonny Bairstow, picking up from his 138 in Dunedin, and Alex Hales, replacing the injured Jason Roy, blazing away at the other end.
The pair raced to 65-0 from the first 10 overs and refused to allow New Zealand the early breakthroughs they needed to have any slim hope.
Bairstow plundered the Kiwi attack, bringing up his fourth ODI century off 58 balls, including six sixes.
He and Hales combined for an opening stand of 155, ending when Bairstow hit wicket off Trent Boult for 104.
England look in menacing ODI touch 15 months out from the 2019 Cricket World Cup on home soil.
This was their ninth ODI bilateral series victory from 10 since 2016 and their 22nd win in 29 matches since the start of 2017.
Without Nicholls and Santner’s middle-order contributions, New Zealand would have been lucky to reach 150.
Nicholls brought up his sixth ODI half-century, hitting a patient 55 from 81 balls. Santner, who has been highly impressive with the bat in this series, struck an ODI careerbest 67, following on from scores of 45 not out, 63no and 41.
England had been guilty of failing to pick up regular breakthroughs with the ball in this series, but were at their best as a bowling unit.
There were soft dismissals from the Black Caps’ top order and questionable shot selection, but England’s quicks set the tone early and were well backed up their spinners.
New Zealand got off to a horror start with Munro, who announced on Friday he would shelving redball cricket to concentrate on limited overs, gone with the third ball of the innings.
Munro was out softly, getting a leading edge to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler off a bouncy Chris Woakes delivery, his second successive duck.
It completed a horrible series for opening partnerships for the Black Caps, with the highest total 12 in Wellington.
Without Taylor, skipper Kane Williamson was pivotal to New Zealand’s fortunes, but he fell cheaply for 14, leaving them 26-2.
Williamson tried to run one from Mark Wood down to third man, but only succeeded in chopping onto his leg stump.
Things went from bad to worse, with Tom Latham undone by the flight of legspinner Adil Rashid and well held by Ben Stokes at short midwicket.
Taylor’s replacement, Mark Chapman, was outclassed by a beauty from offspinner Moeen Ali.