Guptill, Neesham, bowlers shine as New Zealand level series

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Put in to bat, New Zealand racked up 176/8, thanks to Martin Guptill’s early impetus, a brace of cameos from the middle order, and Jimmy Neesham’s late charge. In response, England’s famed batting depth let them down for once, with six of their batsmen being dismissed for single figures as they folded for 155 in the final over of the match.

Though New Zealand lost four wickets around the first half of their innings, they didn’t let the scoreboard stagnate. Guptill did the bulk of the early scoring, contributing 41 of the 85 runs his team had made at the time of his dismissal.

Colin de Grandhomme and Ross Taylor made identical contributions of 28 each, the latter a lot more sedate than the former, that kept the score moving along through the middle overs. But it was Neesham who arrested the impact of the loss of wickets and gave the innings a final flourish with his big-hitting. By the time he was dismissed, off the innings’ last ball, he had struck two fours and four sixes en route to a 22-ball 42.

Chris Jordan was the most successful England bowler, returning 3/23 in four overs, while Sam Curran picked up 2/22 in his quota.

Tim Southee, the home team captain, and his new-ball partner Lockie Ferguson ripped through the England top order to leave them at 3/2 in the second over, and from there it was all catch-up for the visitors.

Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan strung together a recovery through a third-wicket stand of 37 that was dominated by Morgan (32 off 17 balls). But things went downhill again following Morgan’s dismissal, and when the well-set Malan, too, departed in the 12th over for 39, England were staring down the barrel at 93/6.

As he had with the ball, Jordan came to the fore with the bat as well to counterpunch with a boundary-laden 19-ball 36. That included a sequence of four, six, six and six off leg-spinner Ish Sodhi in the 14th over. He followed it up with two more fours in the next two overs, but eventually miscued one to long-on.

Though the late surge had briefly kept England in the hunt, the other losses around it proved to be too much and consigned them to defeat. New Zealand’s bowlers hunted collectively, but Mitchell Santner, the left-arm spinner, finished with the best figures (3/25), while Southee bagged 2/25 off his four overs.

The third T20I will take place in Nelson on Tuesday, 5 November.