NZ vs ENG: 2nd T20I – Santner spins a web as hosts level series
New Zealand fought back at Wellington to inflict a 21 run defeat on England. The result levelled up the 5 match T20I series 1-1 after England’s comfortable win in the first match. For his heroics with the ball, Mitchell Santner was adjudged the man-of-the-match.
Winning the toss, England skipper Eoin Morgan opted to field first, playing to their strengths. But the visitors were the masters of their own downfall, with a poor performance in the fielding department. Both James Vince and Dawid Malan dropped simple catches, while keeper Sam Billings could also not hold on to a sharp chance. The errors led to New Zealand posting a competitive score of 176-8 on the board.
Under-fire Martin Guptill finally got some runs under his belt, scoring 41 off only 28 deliveries. Ross Taylor and Colin de Grandhomme solidified things in the middle-order, scoring 28 each. Jimmy Neesham’s flourish at the end (42 off 22 deliveries) meant that the Kiwis posted a challenging total for the visitors. For England, Chris Jordan was the star performer with the ball, picking up 3 wickets. Sam Curran also impressed, with 2 scalps to his name.
In reply, England could never find the groove in their chase. Jonny Bairstow and James Vince could not contribute much, being dismissed for 0 and 1 respectively. Malan and Morgan then tried to steady the innings with a partnership of 37. New Zealand’s tweakers, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner then got into the act, dismissing the pair. The visitors were then firmly on the back foot, playing catchup. Despite some lusty blows by Jordan at the end in his knock of 36 off 19, England ran out of batsmen, being dismissed for 155. For the hosts, Santner picked up 3 wickets, while Ferguson, Sodhi and Southee scalped up 2 wickets each.
The third match of the series will be played in Nelson on 5th November.
Morgan disappointed with fielding performance
Skipper Eoin Morgan firmly placed the blame on his fielders for his side’s loss in Wellington. England have set high standards in the field over the past few years but were under-par at the Westpac Stadium.
Speaking at the post-match conference, Morgan said:
“When you drop that amount of catches it’s not a great reflection on the performance and the levels of fielding that we aspire to. There were a couple of catches that went in the sun which made it look a lot worse but as regards our standard catches, we expect more.”
Morgan will certainly hope for a better overall performance in the third match with the series levelled at 1-1.
Brief scores: New Zealand 176 for 8 (Neesham 42, Guptill 41, Jordan 3-23) beat England 155 (Malan 39, Santner 3-25) by 21 runs
