Brisbane, Nov 1 (Cricket News) England rode on a solid start given by Alex Hales and Jos Buttler to post a fighting 179 for six in their must-win T20 World Cup match against New Zealand here on Tuesday.

Hales struck a 40-ball 52 as England had a solid opening stand of 81 in 62 balls. Buttler then seized the initiative with a 35-ball fifty en route to his 47-ball 73 that also took him past Eoin Morgan to become England men's leading run-scorer in T20Is.

Buttler hit seven fours and two sixes while Hales had seven boundaries and one maximum. The Kiwis came back at the death and took four wickets, including that of Buttler, and conceded just 22 runs in the last three overs.

Tim Southee had a superb penultimate over where he dismissed Harry Brook (7) and Ben Stokes (8) in three balls, something that denied England 10-15 extra runs.

Luck also favoured Buttler who looked a bit edgy early on and he got reprieves, first on 8 and then on 40.

He got his first life inside the Powerplay when his Kiwi counterpart Kane Williamson seemed to have taken a blinder at the covers but it spilled out of his hands while taking the dive.

Buttler switched gears after the departure of Hales as he took the attack on Kiwi speedster Lockie Ferguson and this time too, he had his luck on his side with Daryl Mitchell dropping a sitter at midwicket boundary.

Continuing his good run after his return, the 33-year-old Hales posted his third half-century in 12 innings since his comeback.

The duo did not give the fiery Kiwi pace attack any chance and primarily scored off groundstrokes, curbing the natural instincts to get off in the Powerplay.

At the halfway mark, England were 77 for no loss with the duo providing a perfect launch pad for the late order to fire.

But the New Zealand spin duo of Mitchell Santner (1/25) and Ish Sodhi (1/23) put brakes on the England scoring rate.

Left-arm spinner Santner was especially tidy as he varied his pace and bowled wide to slow down the run-rate.

It finally paid dividends for Santner as he deceived Hales with a wide delivery to get his wicket.

Moeen Ali (5) was promoted to No. 3 but the move did not yield any result as the all-rounder was dismissed by Ferguson in the 14th over. 

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News Source : PTI