England 234 (Morgan 48, Sodhi 3-53) v New Zealand
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
On a very poor drop-in wicket, which commentator Mark Richardson said smelt like cowpat at the toss and displayed uneven bounce throughout, England battled their way to 234, anchored around a stand of 71 between Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes, supplemented by contributions down the order.
The Westpac pitches have been a talking point all season. The T20 surface against Pakistan was very tough for scoring, but while the pitch for the T20 between these two sides looked horrendous it played perfectly fine. This one did not. Trent Boult’s first delivery disturbed the surface, some deliveries jumped and others kept low.
Colin de Grandhomme exploited conditions with a miserly 10-over spell while the recalled Ish Sodhi claimed 3 for 53, striking twice in quick succession with the wickets of Stokes and Jos Buttler as England tried to push on in the final 10 overs.
On the ground where he skittled England with 7 for 33 at the 2015 World Cup, Tim Southee was soon operating with three slips after Kane Williamson had opted to bowl. He swung the ball nicely but this time there were no early scalps for him. Instead, the opening breakthrough went to Boult when Jason Roy edged a lifting delivery, which disturbed the surface, to the lone slip.
Joe Root, as he does so often, timed the ball sweetly from the off and was starting to dominate with back-to-back sweeps off Mitchell Santner when he tried to club de Grandhomme through the leg side and miscued to mid-on. Jonny Bairstow was then comprehensively defeated by a googly – although more by the drift than the spin – from Sodhi, who had replaced Lockie Ferguson, to leave England 68 for 3 in the 17th over.
What followed was a period of almost comatose batting – very rare for this England side – as they were tied down by de Grandhomme, Sodhi and the surface. The first 46 balls of the Morgan-Stokes stand brought just 13 runs, which included Stokes having the bottom corner of his (unsponsored) bat chipped off by de Grandhomme’s 115kph dobbers.
The shackles were briefly broken by Morgan when he slog-swept Sodhi for six, but after the 25th over went for 11 the next three brought the same amount. Morgan again took it upon himself to try and change things, clumping Colin Munro down the ground, as Stokes continued to battle like rarely seen in any format. Finally, off his 53rd ball, he found the boundary when he sent Boult over the off side.
The partnership was broken on the stroke of drinks with Southee speared one through Morgan’s defences then Stokes, eyeing an acceleration at the start of the last 10 overs, picked out long-off against Sodhi, where Munro took a well-judged catch. Stokes’ final tally of 39 off 73 balls from very reminiscent of his laboured innings in Cardiff during the Champions Trophy semi-final where he made 34 off 64 balls without a boundary.
Buttler had briefly threatened something special when he took Sodhi for consecutive boundaries then played a wonderful, skimming drive over cover for six but Sodhi struck back with the penultimate ball of his spell when Buttler thin-edged another drive.
Williamson opted for eight overs of Munro’s slow-medium, trying to replicate de Grandhomme’s impact, instead of returning to Santner who bowled just two overs in the innings.
Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes each collected valuable boundaries, the pick of them Woakes’ deft steer fine of third man off Southee, before he clothed a drive to mid-off. The final 10 overs brought 68 runs with Mark Wood run out off the final delivery of the innings.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo