Buttler on the charge as Kiwis lose out

EOIN MORGAN heads into his quest to unify world cricket’s white-ball belts on a winning note after the sum of his England team’s parts proved too much for New Zealand. Their final warm-up match ahead of their opening game of the Twenty20 World Cup on Saturday offered captain Morgan a chance to rid himself of the wretched form that plagued the latter stages of the Indian Premier League. Indeed, it appeared one of England’s primary goals when Morgan promoted himself to No 4. However, it did not materialise due to a contentious lbw decision by umpire Marais Erasmus when Morgan, who made just ten from 11 balls, appeared to inside edge an attempted reverse sweep at leg spinner Ish Sodhi. Dawid Malan was dismissed in identical fashion for an underwhelming 11 off 15 balls but other parts of the 12-man team — Tymal Mills was a nominated non-batter — functioned fruitfully. Jos Buttler made up for Malan’s ball-chewing with a typically aggressive 73 from 51 deliveries before power cameos from Jonny Bairstow and Sam Billings hoisted England to 163 for five at Abu Dhabi. Then the bowlers neutered the New Zealanders, just when it looked like the Kiwis were dominating. England’s most potent wickettaking weapons, Mark Wood and Adil Rashid, once again made the breakthroughs. Wood mopped up the tail to finish with four for 23 and Yorkshire leg-spinner Rashid bagged three victims. Rashid said: ‘It’s good to get into a winning habit. It’s always a bowling unit that’s going to win the game out here as opposed to just spin or seam.’