England miss out on T20 tri-series final despite narrow win over New Zealand

A match that summed up England’s disastrous Trans-Tasman tri-series saw victory sealed off the final ball but the game effectively lost 11 deliveries earlier. Needing to beat New Zealand by 20 runs to qualify for the tri-series final, their two-run win, as thrilling as it might have been in any other context, was thoroughly underwhelming. New Zealand will now face Australia in Wednesday’s final at Auckland.

The team analyst crunched the numbers and after double-checking with the bods at Loughborough overnight, confirmed to Eoin Morgan that victory by around 20 runs – or achieving a target with two or three overs to spare – would see them go through. At the halfway stage, having posted 194 for seven, England had their answer – they needed to keep the Black Caps to 174 or below.

Just as the calculator was put away, the New Zealand opener Colin Munro brought out the big guns, launching an astonishing attack on some woeful bowling with 52 off his first 18 balls. He was eventually seen off in Adil Rashid’s first over, caught at backward square leg by David Willey, at the start of an effective counterattack by spin.

Rashid and Liam Dawson stitched seven overs together, sharing 15 dot balls and conceding just the one boundary between them to slow New Zealand from 77 for no wicket after the power play to 108 for two after 13 overs. The 14th went for 18, however, as Dawson, whose left-arm spin had conceded just nine and nabbed the wicket of Kane Williamson in his first three overs, was taken apart by Martin Guptill and Mark Chapman.

Guptill, who had played possum while Munro was teeing off, came to the fore. While he was unable to see New Zealand over the line, his 62 from 47 balls got them within 11 of qualification with three and a half overs left. His dismissal, clean bowled while trying to find a third consecutive six, gave Dawid Malan his maiden international wicket. A single to mid-on from Chapman off the first ball of the 19th over ticked the score over to the magic 175 mark.

Defending 12 off the final over, Tom Curran kept New Zealand to nine for a redundant win. England rested players for this series at the end of a gruelling tour, but considering the pride and resources placed on white-ball cricket, this has been a chastening fortnight.

After being put in, Jason Roy opened the team’s scoring with a six and took the visitors to 22 for no wicket after two overs, but some smart slower balls which accounted for Alex Hales and Roy – both caught down the ground off Tim Southee and Trent Boult respectively – slowed them up to 41 for two after six overs. Morgan’s return to form with 80 off 46 balls was at least welcome for the man himself – a first half-century of this white-ball tour and his second highest score in international Twenty20.

In the 12th over he had been caught off a no-ball, an above-waist full-toss from Ish Sodhi, on 36. Malan then smashed the free hit over the stands at deep midwicket for his fifth six, taking him to his half-century from 32 balls. It meant he became the first man in international T20 to score four half-centuries in his first five matches. He fell four balls later, hitting to the same area, this time off Colin de Grandhomme, for 53.

Morgan continued but at the other end Jos Buttler was stumped off a picture-perfect leg-spinner from Sodhi to finish with a series aggregate of 65 runs, having faced a total of 65 balls across his four innings. Sam Billings’ attempts to get cute saw him dab a ball into his stumps. And so it was down to the England captain to lead a late charge, scoring 34 off his final 12 balls. Though he only faced four of the last 12 deliveries, cameos from Willey, Dawson, and a last-ball six from Chris Jordan set a target of 195.

England will travel on to Auckland anyway, though now for a period of rest before the five-match ODI series begins next Sunday. Some players are staying on, others finally returning home. You would not blame the former for being jealous of the latter.