35th over: England 181-5 (Buttler 32, Moeen 0) Well that wicket changes everything. For as long as Root was at the crease England’s innings had an anchor, it had an air of comfort. Now, though, they’re squirming a little bit.
Root’s gone! He just misjudges that in every way, swipes across the line of the ball, misses it entirely and his off stump is ripped out of the ground!
34th over: England 179-4 (Root 70, Buttler 31) Unsurprisingly, given what Buttler made of his last over, Sodhi is replaced. Southee returns, and after four singles Root flays the ball to extra cover, where Santner dives to his right, gets his his right palm to the ball but can’t hold on! That would have been a fabulous catch, one for the highlights reels, but instead it goes down as a drop.
33rd over: England 174-4 (Root 67, Buttler 29) Up until about five minutes ago this had been a finely balanced match, but the batsmen appear to have mounted a coup. They are now in control here.
32nd over: England 168-4 (Root 66, Buttler 24) An explosive over from Ish Sodhi, which starts with yet another Root single and continues with a six, and then another six, and then a third six, all of them sent down the ground by Buttler. The first is the finest, hardest, cleanest of them, but all three were pretty emphatic.
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31st over: England 148-4 (Root 65, Buttler 5) Buttler gets off the mark with a boundary, trying a reverse sweep, getting almost everything about it wrong and somehow getting four runs for his troubles.
30th over: England 141-4 (Root 63, Buttler 0) Sodhi continues; Root gets a single off the first but Buttler can’t do the same, displaying an admirable array of mistimes and fielder pickouts to remain scoreless, after seven deliveriess.
29th over: England 140-4 (Root 62, Buttler 0) There are, as it often seems when Root is around, two games in play here. One, involving him, is nerveless, chanceless and gently remorseless; the other, involving all other batsmen, is chaotic.
Stokes gets a thick top edge, the ball disappears high over his left shoulder, and he starts walking. Behind him Taylor runs across, eyes on the ball, and makes no mistake.
28th over: England 138-3 (Root 60, Stokes 12) Excellent fielding from Williamson, who comes across from mid on and dives to stop a ball that was otherwise away, rolls, leaps up, returns it, and all the time the sunglasses perched on his forehead remained lodged perfectly in place. that’s the really impressive thing: impeccable sunglass placement there. Root sends his next shot in a similar direction, only much harder and higher, for six.
27th over: England 130-3 (Root 53, Stokes 11) De Grandhomme’s back, and Root completes his half-century, tickling the ball just wide of Latham and away for four.
26th over: England 121-3 (Root 46, Stokes 9) It’s hard to know how long the game will stick to its current retro stylings. It seems that 260 would be widely considered a decent-to-good score on this wicket.
25th over: England 119-3 (Root 45, Stokes 8) A couple more singles for Root, whose portion of the game appears in his total and absolute control. And a couple for Stokes, whose form is yet to become clear.
24rd over: England 114-3 (Root 41, Stokes 6) Sodhi’s sixth over, and so far they have cost on average six runs. The latest yields five, thanks to a single and a Stokes reverse sweep for four.
23rd over: England 109-3 (Root 41, Stokes 2) Boult is back, and England score a few singles. It could have ended with another wicket, though, as Stokes fends the last delivery back to the bowler. It’s a bit awkward for the bowler, arriving just under knee height, and the catch never looks likely to stick, but Boult seems furious with himself for letting it drop.
21st over: England 106-3 (Root 39, Stokes 1) Morgan slams the ball over midwicket, the ball landing a foot or so beyond the rope for six, only to be outdone by the googly next ball. Ben Stokes comes in, with a few cobwebs to shake loose.
Well Morgan doesn’t pick this one at all, gets a thick leading edge and the ball loops to mid off.
21st over: England 98-2 (Root 38, Morgan 2) Three dots, two singles and a Root four, tickled fine.
20th over: England 92-2 (Root 33, Morgan 1) New Zealand bring in a slip for the new batsman, but he doesn’t get anything to do.
19th over: England 89-2 (Root 31, Morgan 0) A brief break for drinks, and then a fine over from Santner. His fourth delivery turns just a fraction, enough to beat the bat. Roy smacks the next through cover for four, agricultural but effective, and then goes next ball.
A breakthrough! Roy, one from his half-century, tries to work the ball into the leg side for a single, misses, and it flicks off his pads and into the stumps.
18th over: England 84-1 (Roy 45, Root 30) Dropped! Roy hits the ball right back at Sodhi, but he can’t keep it in his hands. Then two balls later Roy slogs the ball into a neighbouring time zone, which in the circumstances has got to smart. “You have to feel that this is Adelaide and the Cardiff semi done right,” writes Sachin Paul. “Slow pitch, good bowling attack, nippy bowling. If we get 300 and then Curran, Willey etc take the pace off the ball, it’ll be one of the most mature victories of this side ahead of next year’s world cup.”
17th over: England 76-1 (Roy 38, Root 29) More spin, with Santner returning to form a spinny double-act with Sodhi. England are scoring quite slowly (though Root is rolling at a run a ball), but wickets have not been falling and there’s time.
16th over: England 73-1 (Roy 36, Root 28) Roy goes down on bended knee to sweep the ball away, but top-edges it again, and gets away with it. It’s a single, and after another Roy tries to pummel the ball again, more successfully this time, and it whistles down the ground for four.
15th over: England 66-1 (Roy 30, Root 27) Ball and boundary are finally reunited, though it’s a leg bye, De Grandhomme’s delivery clipping Root’s pad and rolling away.
14th over: England 59-1 (Roy 28, Root 26) Wrist spin now from Ish Sodhi, and England pilfer a few more singles, as well as being donated a wide. England’s last 17 scoring shots have all been singles.
13th over: England 54-1 (Roy 26, Root 24) A third consecutive binary over, in which each delivery has yielded either one run or none.
12th over: England 49-1 (Roy 24, Root 21) Santner is yet to find any real grip in the surface, and England calmly work the odd single or five.
11th over: England 44-1 (Roy 22, Root 18) Colin de Grandhomme bowls. It’s Grandhomme day. And neither batsman can really get to grips with his sleepy medium pace.
10th over: England 41-1 (Roy 21, Root 16) The first three deliveries go for singles, and then after a dot Roy goes after one, gets a thick edge and it flies just over mid-on and off to the rope.
9th over: England 34-1 (Roy 16, Root 14) Southee continues. Good lines, good lengths, variations in pace, two singles. Now to find out if the early turn Kane Williamson predicted at the toss is indeed there for the spinners, as Mitchell Santner has the ball in his hands.
8th over: England 32-1 (Roy 15, Root 13) Roy tries to heave the ball over extra cover, but it’s a slower delivery and he doesn’t pick it at all, sending it steepling over his shoulder and up into the air, and is extremely fortunate to see it drop safely between fielders. Then Boult bowls across Root, a similar delivery to the one that did for Bairstow, and he almost get another! Root swings his bat, edges, and is saved by his own power, which carries the ball above the two slips. The next is sent smoothly and calmly through the covers for another four.
7th over: England 23-1 (Roy 14, Root 5) Roy tries to batter Southee’s first delivery, misjudges it, and inside-edges wide of his stumps and away for a streaky but welcome four. Then Root works the ball through midwicket, sweetly timed, and it races away from the chasing fielder for four more.
6th over: England 14-1 (Roy 9, Root 1) Still nowhere for the batsmen to go, except into their shells. They get a run each, Roy’s courtest of a finall-ball edge that goes wide of second slip.
5th over: England 12-1 (Roy 8, Root 0) Now this is an intriguing start to an international match. England’s batsmen are being well shackled, in conditions that are pretty helpful for New Zealand’s frontline bowlers.
4th over: England 10-1 (Roy 6, Root 0) Roy sends the first ball of the over through midwicket for four, and Bairstow edges the last ball of the over to slip for a wicket.
Bairstow, author of one nice, controlled scoring shot and little but uncertainty besides, edges to the solitary slip, who pockets the catch!
3rd over: England 5-0 (Roy 1, Bairstow 4) Southee slings the ball into Roy’s pad and launches an excited appeal, but the ball was sliding down leg. Still, that’s one of five more dots in this over, and England’s innings remains on the start grid, engine revving but brakes still engaged.
2nd over: England 4-0 (Roy 0, Bairstow 4) Before he starts his run-up Trent Boult, limbering up, leans over, and a large clump of hair flops down into an exaggerated horizontal quiff, making him look like a winded, black-haired Tintin. The over starts excellently, the ball being angled across Bairstow, close to the body. But after four dots the batsman pulls for four, and England are off the mark.
1st over: England 0-0 (Roy 0, Bairstow 0) Movement here for Southee, and no runs here for Roy. A maiden to start the day.
The players are out, and action is about to get under way. England’s batting line-up looks pretty formidable, but will be braced for a battle.
The New Zealand team: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Tom Latham, Henry Nicholls, Colin De Grandhomme, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.
Eoin Morgan speaks:
Probably would have looked to do the exact same. We’ll be playing two spinners. Ben Stokes comes back in which allows us to play our full, balanced team, with two spinners. We’re playing against a very strong team who’s in good form, so we’re going to have to play at our best to win this series.
New Zealand win the toss and will bowl first.
England team news: Ben Stokes is in the line-up:
The match may or may not turn out to be any good, but the sky is absolutely fabulous. Classic cumulus action there.
Hello world!
Let’s kick things off with a couple of stats:
The two teams’ last 10 ODI results:
New Zealand: LLWWWWWWWW
England: LWWWWWWWLW
Number of ODIs in New Zealand between these teams in last 25 years: 19
Number of those ODIs in which either team has scored more than 250 runs: 4
Chance of one or both sides scoring 250 or more today: a good deal more than four in 19.
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s Rob Smyth in this week’s Spin on Eoin Morgan and the transformation of England’s one-day fortunes:
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