(Cricket news) It was the final warm-up game for England and New Zealand before the T20 World Cup is well and truly underway and Jos Buttler’s exceptional innings of 73 runs off 51 deliveries led England to a total of 163-6 with cameos from Jonny Bairstow (30 runs off 21) and Sam Billings (27 runs off 17).
Both Adil Rashid (3-18) and Mark Wood (4-21) took two wickets in an over while an economical four over spell by Tymal Mills (0-23) helped reduce New Zealand from 66-1 to 103-9. New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi (25 runs off 16) and Todd Astle (16 runs off 13) brought the Kiwi’s closer to England’s total of 163 but with 15 runs needed from Chris Woakes’ final over, New Zealand were ultimately reduced to 150 runs.
Dawid Malan (11 runs off 15) and Eoin Morgan (10 runs off 11) are struggling for form ahead of England’s match against West Indies. Morgan particularly has been poor at the Indian Premier League as well, averaging only 11 runs while Malan’s tendency to take time to acclimatize to conditions might prove detrimental to England’s ambitions, particularly on UAE pitches which are notoriously slow and quick runs are instrumental during the powerplay.
The Black Caps scored 81-2 inside nine overs as Livingstone opened the bowling for England for 14 runs with Martin Guptill scoring a few sixes. The turning point of the match was when Billings’ run out of Devon Conway (20 runs off 23) led to a collapse of seven wickets, three of them at the score of 87 runs.
Adil Rashid, who had earlier taken the wicket of Guptill struck twice in the 11th over when Mark Chapman (1) was caught at the slip and bowled Mitchell Santner (0). Mark Wood was responsible for the wicket of Tim Seifert in the third over and led to the collapse of the middle and lower order, taking the wickets of Kyle Jamieson and Southee one after another in the 15th over but could not complete a hat-trick.
England will next face West Indies on Saturday, 23rd October at 7:30 pm while New Zealand will face Pakistan on Tuesday, 26th October at 7:30 pm.
