Two matches of this series were widely broadcast in England and New Zealand, in the words of their own captain, Tim Southee, were “lazy”. But on a balmy evening at Trent Bridge, where Jonny Bairstow’s punch and Rehan Ahmed’s precocity were the home side’s only positives, the Black Caps completed their comeback with their fourth clear victory in 10 days.
England won the toss and were buoyed by a promising start from Bairstow, but New Zealand got back on track before picking up their batsmen and actioning their way to victory with six wickets, with 16 balls remaining. In the end, England were in tatters and it was fitting that Rachin Ravindra’s victory line should be helped by a false field in his path.
Bairstow was the only England batsman to excel, contributing 73 from his 175 overs, but the quality of the Black Caps was deeper. Of England’s top six, only Bairstow achieved a strike rate above 150; of New Zealand, none dipped below, Tim Seifert and the great Glenn Phillips fell within the sniffing distance of a half-century, a mark that Mark Chapman would certainly reach if his team had not won the match before
There were moments of luck – Phillips let out a cry of pain overcoming a Brydon Carse delivery in the 13th over, only for the ball to go well over the boundary, and two balls after Chapman also pushed one over the ground this time for four -but also spectacular clean strikes
One of them was for Jos Buttler to rest. Instead, England’s white-ball captain had to put on the gloves as an health issue replacement after Bairstow reported a sore right shoulder. “I’m fine,” the Yorkshire man after said. “We have a lot of Cricket ahead of us and this is more of a precaution.”So even England’s only truly successful batsman had a mixed night of luck, a situation well beyond the reach of most of his team-mates.
Will Jacks added a 15-ball 16 to his previous efforts of 22, 19 and 11, his four innings in in the middle of including a moderate shrug of a series. None of the Harry Brook, Moeen Ali and Sam Curran scored more than five, which means that at least the first of them did not further fuel the heated debates around his claims to a place in the World Cup squad. Dawid Malan and Liam Livingstone produced superficially almost identical innings of 26, 21 and 20 deliveries.
In all this, Bairstow’s message was a beautiful Anomaly. The 33-year-old made his first appearance on this ground since England claimed victory over these opponents last year with 77 balls and a total of 136 balls. With six sixes and five fours, he brought back some memories of that day, especially those who squatted under cover on the Smith Cooper Stand.
In their innings, as in the series, England looked impressive at the halfway mark but faltered. After their seamers struggled, New Zealand found a Break in Spin and Ish Sodhi, Mitchell Santner and Ravindra conceded just 68 in their 10 overs, taking six wickets in the process. Ravindra replaced Devon Conway in their only move and after Kyle Jamieson’s two Overs had gone for 35 – the second with three consecutive wides with varying degrees of misfortune – he demonstrated the advantage of having a versatile Spin-Bowling in the formation (it was no surprise for England, who had four). Tim Southee and Matt Henry have returned impressively after the gone to leave New Zealand with a relatively meager goal.
