England pay price for lack of experience
Development side lose by 14 runs in third T20 New Zealand lead series 2-1 after tourists collapse
Several fundamental differences between the teams accounted for England’s 14-run defeat in the third Twenty20 international at Saxton Oval – the primary one being that New Zealand fielded their best available XI while England picked a development side.
Eoin Morgan was the only regular member left of England’s firstchoice T20 team after Adil Rashid, Jonny Bairstow and Chris Jordan had been omitted on a rest-and-rotation basis, so that every playing member of the touring party could have a game. A number of other stalwarts, such as Jos Buttler and Jason Roy, were left at home for this assignment.
“One of the objectives of this is to know more about guys that come in,” Morgan said after England’s reply had petered out with the loss of five wickets for 10 runs. “We do have to get better and calmer when we are chasing. It must be our most inexperienced side for a very long time.”
When asked whether England would alter their plan to experiment in this series, Morgan said: “No, not really. The priority is to win games alongside finding out more about guys. Today is a great learning day for us and hopefully the guys take in the information and learn from that.”
The fact remains, however, that this game was between the New Zealand T20 side and an England T20 side – and therefore raises the question of whether it should be accorded international status.
It is almost the modern equivalent of England’s first Test tour of New Zealand in 1929-30. They sent what was effectively their third XI to ease New Zealand into Test cricket in their inaugural series.
Experience, therefore, was in very short supply for England after Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson had been handed their T20 debuts before the start of this game, while Pat Brown, Sam Curran and Saqib Mahmood had been given their debuts at the start of this series.
And, for all the merits of youth when it comes to fielding, experience is far more valuable when it comes to batting in T20 than was ever envisaged when the format was launched, and especially when chasing. England, chasing 181, were always up with the required rate of nine per over, but never ahead of it. So after the older batsmen had gone, with 39 wanted off the last four overs, that left far too much to the juniors.
Fine innings were played by England’s two older, but still not established, batsmen: Dawid Malan, who hit 55 off 34 balls before shovelling a full toss against the wind to deep midwicket, and James Vince, who scored 49 off 39 balls – just the sort of imperiously handsome innings before getting himself out that Vince would play, so the caustic might comment.
There was a mitigating circumstance, however. Sam Curran had come in, missed his first two balls, and laboured to make a single off four balls at the other end. That Curran should not have been sent in ahead of Lewis Gregory – Somerset’s battle-hardened finisher – is a valid criticism. In any event, with 35 required off only 19 balls, Vince felt obliged to drive over mid-off but could not clear him.
England’s captain, nor vice-captain Sam Billings, could supply the experience needed, which Ross Taylor had done in New Zealand’s innings. Colin de Grandhomme won the player-of-the-match award for his 55 off 35 balls, but Taylor glued the innings together in the course of their partnership of 66, allowing Jimmy Neesham to finish with a flourish. Nobody played the “Ross role” for England; Morgan drove to long-on while Billings, eager for a leg-bye, was run out by Colin Munro’s direct hit.
Other differences between the sides were that England had a long tail of Mahmood, Brown and Parkinson, all No 11s at this stage of their T20 careers; and that England’s fielding, while much improved on their second showing, was still inferior to New Zealand’s.
Also, England had nobody of express pace – Mahmood still seems hesitant to bowl full-throttle – whereas Lockie Ferguson proved to be too quick for England’s lower order.
New Zealand also placed more faith in spin than England, which was a reason why the hosts chose to bat first on a dry pitch. Mitchell Santner dismissed Morgan, in addition to Ish Sodhi’s full-bunger that trapped Malan, so that New Zealand’s spinners took two wickets – albeit expensive ones – while Parkinson was limited to two overs on his debut. They were tidy overs too, along with the wicket of Tim Seifert, who tried to reverse-sweep and was bowled between his legs.
The threat of two left-handed batsmen, Neesham and Santner, led Morgan to protect Parkinson from further exposure. As for the second England debutant, Banton, he made a fine start of 18 off nine balls, so there was no need to attempt a scoop shot so early in his innings, and international T20 career, as the 10th ball. England might have got away with such youthful bravado if there had been experience to follow Banton, but there was not nearly enough.