or a supposedly pointless fixture squeezed rudely
into the calendar, this game produced enough wattage to light up a fair
proportion of south London. New Zealand were the victors in a match that
aggregated 397 runs as a full house at The Oval lapped up a classically
rambunctious T20 international.
Hamish Rutherford and Brendon McCullum tore up some mediocre bowling on a
good pitch as New Zealand posted 201 for 4 and, although Luke Wright
muscled a typically busy half-century, England's middle-order was left
with too much to do after Ian Butler and Mitchell McClenaghan struck in
successive overs.
Butler's dismissal of Eoin Morgan, via a brilliant, one-handed Ross
Taylor catch, leaping high to his right at slip, was as concussive a
blow as any. For the captain, McCullum, to insert a slip at that stage
was another strikingly aggressive gambit.
Although the ground thrummed to the beat of the White Stripes' "Seven
Nation Army", as the crowd chanted in support of their new cult hero,
Ravi Bopara, his 30 off 18 balls was not quite enough to complete
England's highest successful chase in T20 internationals.
This is what T20 in England is supposed to be about - warm summer
evenings, turbo-charged batting and a well-lubricated crowd ready to
cheer on whichever team hits the hardest. The T20 series with New
Zealand has overshadowed the launch of the Friends Life t20 but there
may be hope that the domestic competition can plug in to a similar power
source for the next couple of months.
The weather will play a big role in that and, after the enforced 20-over
affair during a soggy Champions Trophy final on Sunday, for once the
sun shone and the skies remained clear for a genuine T20 contest.
A side featuring four players in Morgan, Bopara, Jos Buttler and James
Tredwell who took on India, as well as several of England's T20
specialists, may have missed a handful of regulars being protected for
the Ashes but they pushed a more experienced New Zealand all the way.
The five-run loss had a familiar ring but the circumstances couldn't
have been more different to the cagey affair at Edgbaston.
At the end of the Powerplay, England were 67 for 1, which offered a
perky comparison with New Zealand's 54 for 1. Although Michael Lumb was
bowled, playing the ball on to his stumps via a boot in the fourth over,
he had set the tempo with two crunching leg-side blows for six.
His Nottinghamshire partner, Hales, who last made more than 21 six weeks
ago and was coming off a run of 11 single-figures score in 13 innings,
was afforded the slice of luck he required when a top edge flew high to
fine leg and the chasing Rutherford dropped the ball, which then rolled
for four.
The delivery was also called a no-ball - though McClenaghan may have
pointed to Stuart Broad's crucial dismissal of Kane Williamson in these
teams' Champions Trophy encounter by way of defence - and the over went
for 25.
A partnership worth 55 with Wright followed before Hales picked out deep
midwicket with a mishit slog. Wright reached 50 off 29 balls but after
his dismissal the requirement rose to 63 from 30, which for all Bopara's
now-familiar swash and buckle proved beyond England. With 16 needed,
Ben Stokes hit the first ball of the final over for six but the bowler,
Corey Anderson, held his nerve.
The tone for the evening had been set by New Zealand's second-wicket
partnership, worth 114 runs in 67 balls, between Rutherford and
McCullum, with the former scoring his first half-century in a
limited-overs international. McCullum, unusually, was not quite as
belligerent as his partner but he top-scored with 68 from 48 balls in a
manner reminiscent of his form against England when these two teams
began their 16-round, bi-continental tussle back in February.
England inserted New Zealand after Morgan had won the toss and the
stand-in captain's evening was further buoyed by Boyd Rankin, the former
Ireland bowler, taking a wicket with his fourth delivery in an England
shirt. But the next hour and a half went almost as rapidly downhill as
the ball seemed to go forever skyward, Rutherford and McCullum batting
with giddy abandon on a true surface as England were forced into using
seven bowlers.
The pair had evidently not been told this was a glorified exhibition
match, albeit a crowd-pulling one, and set about giving England's
reservists a thorough caning. Rankin and Wright apart, the bowlers
queued up like naughty schoolboys to be disciplined: Chris Woakes' only
over cost 19, including a lazy flick over deep square leg from
Rutherford; Tredwell was sized up for 15 in his first, as Rutherford
clubbed him for consecutive, imperious sixes.
Tredwell was again smashed into the crowd at long-on in his second over,
after Rutherford passed 50 off his 28th delivery. England had reason to
rue Bopara's drop off Jade Dernbach in the fourth over. Rutherford
sliced the ball towards point at just above head height, but Bopara
seemed to have too much spring in his heels and a straightforward chance
deflected away off his wrist.
Bopara later conceded 22 from an over and he and Tredwell, who had
provided crucial spells with the ball in the Champions Trophy final,
bowled four overs at a cost of 64 runs here.
Rankin may find it a little harder to get served in The Greyhound, the
nearby Irish pub in Kennington, after his inclusion confirmed an
anticipated switch to England but there were plenty in the ground who
would have willingly bought him a drink after he struck in his first
over.
His pace and back-of-a-length hostility around off stump made him appear
like an imported Steven Finn knock-off and he soon exposed James
Franklin, in for the hamstrung Martin Guptill, for the imitation opener
that he is - at least at international level - with one that nipped
back. With New Zealand 1 for 1 after four balls, England may have felt
they had the luck of Irish but they had run out of it by the end.
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