It looked a piece of cake... but Eoin’s side fail to put the ‘cherry on the top’
SCOREBOARD
ENGLAND captain Eoin Morgan wrote off the horror collapse that cost his team a series-sealing win against New Zealand today as a “one-off” and vowed to carry on the aggressive batting style that has made them a force in one-day cricket.
At 267 for one in the 38th over of their innings and with Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root sharing a second-wicket partnership of 190, the tourists were eyeing a total close to 400.
But Bairstow’s dismissal to Colin Munro on 138, his first ODI hundred overseas, sparked a collapse of six for 21 as Jos Buttler, Morgan, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes all fell for single-figure scores.
Indeed, the combined total of 12 runs for numbers four to eight was the lowest ever for England in a one-day international.
It meant despite Root eventually scoring 102, his 11th century in this format, England only made 335 for nine in this fourth match of the series.
That was still the highest total by a visiting team on this postage stamp of a ground.
But New Zealand, who slipped to 2-2 early in their chase, reached their target with three balls to spare thanks to Ross Taylor defying a recurrence of a thigh injury to score a brilliant career best unbeaten 181.
It means this thrilling series, in which three of the four matches settled in the final over, is now level at 2-2 and will go down to a decider in Christchurch on Friday.
Defeat was a bitter pill for England to swallow. But Morgan was in no mood to dwell on the batting implo- 1st ODI, Hamilton
New Zealand won by three wickets 2nd ODI, Tauranga
England won by six wickets
3rd ODI, Wellington
England won by four runs Friday, 5th ODI, Christchurch (10pm, Sky Sports) sion that ultimately cost his team. “It’s something that’s not happened before and is extremely disappointing,” he said. “All four of us that got out for very little all came in and were gutted, because there was a hell of a lot of hard work that was put in to get us in that position.
“It has been a one-off, that’s the thing. We’ve certainly had collapses of the top order.
“But certainly when we’ve earned the right to push for a 370 score, we’ve not had a collapse like that. Normally one of us has come off. That’s the way the batting order lines up and that’s the way our template looks.
“If it continues to be a pattern we’ll look into it deeply. But for everybody walking off, it’s hurting deep we’ve not been able to capitalise on that.”
Asked if England were guilty of being over-ambitious, especially against Ish Sodhi, the leg-spinner who took four wickets, Morgan said: “I’m a big fan of over-ambition. We’ve scored 400 twice. When two guys play out of their skin to do that, we’ve got to put the cream on the cake and the cherry on top.
“We were miles away from it today. Our skill level wasn’t good enough to take risks that early — whereas it should be.”
Defeat was even harder on Bairstow and Root.
Yet talk of that pair being let down by the rest of the batting order was rejected by Morgan. “No, no — we win together, we lose together.”
Taylor, who also made a century during his team’s win in the series opener in Hamilton last month, was supported well by Tom Latham, who hit 71 during a fourth-wicket partnership of 187 that went a long way to seeing New Zealand home.
What made Taylor’s knock even more impressive, though, was the way he fought on through the thigh injury that had forced him to miss last Saturday’s third ODI in Wellington.
Taylor, who is 34 tomorrow, is now a big doubt for the finale in Christchurch this weekend.
He said: “It’s my birthday tomorrow and I’ve got a nice bottle of wine but I can’t drink if I’ve got any chance of playing in the last game.”
THE SERIES Today, 4th ODI, Dunedin
New Zealand won by five wickets