Woeful England are left needing a T20 miracle to reach the final
DIFFERENT surroundings. Same sorry result. England began their tour of New Zealand yesterday in much the same way they spent most of the demanding visit to Australia — with a woeful performance. A third awful defeat in three matches in this Twenty20 tri-series that straddles both countries left England needing a near-miracle to reach the final against Australia next week in Auckland. England, despite bringing back the pace of Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett, simply conceded too many runs as New Zealand racked up 196 for five. They still had a puncher’s chance, particularly with the short boundaries, but they lost wickets at bad times. The wicket of Jos Buttler, again deputising as captain for the injured Eoin Morgan, was the most notable loss as England fell 12 runs short. Only Dawid Malan, with his third half-century in his first four Twenty20 internationals, offered any hope. Now England, who were described as ‘ordinary’ and ‘headless’ by Sportsmail’s Nasser Hussain on Sky, need Australia to beat New Zealand in Auckland on Friday and then beat them convincingly themselves in Sunday’s final qualifier in Hamilton to have any chance of reaching the final. ‘That was very disappointing,’ said Buttler. ‘It would have been nice to back up the oneday series in a better way than we have done and we are going to have to improve fast. We just conceded too many runs.’ It could have been such a better night for England had Wood run out Kane Williamson before he had scored but he missed the stumps from about five yards after the New Zealand captain attempted a suicidal single. That was the start of a difficult evening for England’s fastest bowler, even though he was to take two wickets, conceding 51 off his four overs. It was Williamson who was at the heart of an impressive batting display from New Zealand as he made his first Twenty20 half-century in over a year. While there was Malan and Buttler there was hope but both fell swinging with the required rate escalating. Now their hopes of progressing to the final hang by a thread.