25 overs New Zealand 89 for 2 (Taylor 37*, Williamson 32*) v England
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Ross Taylor, beginning to find form after his self-imposed international
exile, and Kane Williamson dragged New Zealand up from an uncertain
start on a good batting pitch in Napier, after Alastair Cook had won the
toss and chose to bowl. James Anderson and Steven Finn applied a
chokehold during the Powerplay, as England sought parity in the
three-match series, but Taylor and Williamson had begun to wrestle
themselves free by the halfway stage of the innings.
Anderson, fresh from passing Ian Botham as England's leading
wicket-taker in international cricket, had talked of bowling until he
was 40 before the match. You suspect even as an Oldsmobile he would
cruise in smoothly but the current model is a genuine handful and more
experienced drivers than BJ Watling have nicked to first slip pushing at
Anderson's length ball, which just veered away enough to take the edge
in the seventh over.
Anderson and Finn built the early pressure, refusing the batsmen width
to attack the short square boundaries. Hamish Rutherford did manage to
find the rope, squeezing the ball away off his hips and then flashing,
in the air, behind point but his debut one-day innings was ended by a
piece of Anderson guile. Rutherford eyeballed the pitch when a length
ball sat up rather more pertly than he expected, causing him to punch
uppishly to extra-cover where Alastair Cook clung on diving to his left,
but the effect of Anderson cutting his fingers over the ball was
telling.
At the end of the Powerplay, New Zealand were 21 for 2 and a total in
excess of 300 looked a long way off. The last time these two teams met a
Napier, they split 680 runs precisely down the middle, with Luke Wright
keeping New Zealand to six off the final over to force a tie. Paul
Collingwood, Dimitri Mascarenhas, Owais Shah and Wright shared 20 overs
that day but, with the shift in their strategy towards specialists,
England's attack looked a meaner machine five years to the day on.
When the first change came, Anderson had figures of 6-2-11-2. Finn had
also gone at less than two an over and New Zealand had to attempt to
force the pace against Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad. The latter
experienced some issues with his length and Taylor then took two fours
off Woakes' third over to drag the rate up a little. The introduction of
Graeme Swann emphasised the quality at Cook's disposal but Williamson
showcased his own qualities with a straight punch down the ground for a
one-bounce four against the offspinner.
While England were unchanged, New Zealand made three switches to the XI
that won by three wickets in Hamilton at the weekend. Injuries to Martin
Guptill and Mitchell McClenaghan meant places for Rutherford and Trent
Boult, while Tim Southee was fast-tracked back into the side after a
thumb problem in place of Andrew Ellis, for his first international
appearance since the tour of Sri Lanka.
New Zealand 1 Hamish Rutherford, 2 BJ Watling, 3 Kane Williamson,
4 Ross Taylor, 5 Grant Elliott, 6 Brendon McCullum (capt & wk), 7
James Franklin, 8 Nathan McCullum, 9 Kyle Mills, 10 Trent Boult, 11 Tim
Southee
England 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4
Joe Root, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Stuart
Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Steven Finn
Alan Gardner is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo
Feeds: Alan Gardner
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