New Zealand bounce back after heavy defeat in first ODI against England

New Zealand bounced back after a thrashing in the first ODI

It was an eagerly awaited clash between two teams with opposing mindsets in the ODI format of the game – the rejuvenated and aggressive Black Caps against the more traditional and the sophisticated England. The England selectors had taken a bold, albeit necessary, decision to bring in some new faces and new ideas into the English one-day team, dropping some of the senior players in the process.

It was a highly anticipated series as New Zealand, with its new-found aggression, was raring to go, especially after levelling the Test series after a fantastic win over the hosts in the second and final Test. England, on the other hand, as best described by Sir Ian Botham, was this complete new look side and carried no baggage of previous experiences.

The first ODI surprised the entire cricketing world, as England produced a stunning display with both bat and ball. They played a flawless game and broke some important records during the game, including reaching their highest ever score in ODI cricket. That made the second ODI between the two sides even more interesting, as New Zealand looked to bounce back from one of their worst defeats while England wanted to show that their display in the first ODI was not a fluke.

Having won the toss, New Zealand decided to bat first on a flat track at the Oval, London. After playing cautiously at the very start, negotiating the bounce and the movement generated by Steven Finn, skipper Brendon McCullum unleashed his vast array of strokes and got them off to a rollicking start with a quickfire 39 off 22 balls, helping them put up 61 runs in just 7.2 overs.

His departure, however, did not bring the scoring rate down as Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson continued to thrive by capitalising on some poor bowling by the English. When Guptill fell for a brisk 50 from 54 balls, it looked as though the run rate could suffer as Ross Taylor was not going into the game with a bit of uncertainty surrounding his form. However, he got going right from the very start and helped ease the pressure off Williamson.

The duo stitched together a partnership of 121 runs for the third wicket before Williamson, unfortunately, fell short of what would have been a deserved century by 7 runs. That didn’t deter Taylor, though, as he brought up his first ODI century against England and the scoring rate only got better as the innings progressed courtesy of brief cameos from Grant Elliot and Luke Ronchi, thereby helping New Zealand rack up an imposing score of 398 from their allotted 50 overs.

The English, in their reply, got off to a blazing start as the openers put together a partnership of 85 in just under 13 overs. Their great start wasn’t put to much use, though, as three wickets fell within the space of 4 overs to reduce them to 100 for 3 in 16 overs.

Ben Stokes showed some resistance but could not provide enough support to Morgan, who was looking in dazzling form. Jos Buttler’s arrival at the crease started the onslaught from England, as they scored the next 96 runs in just around 10 overs. But New Zealand kept coming back into the game, picking up the next three wickets in quick succession.

Requiring another 124 runs for victory in 14 overs, Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid almost took the game away from McCullum’s boys until bad weather intervened. The stern challenge posed by England was cut short as the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) method played a cruel joke as the equation came down to an improbable 34 from 13 balls when the truth is that the hosts were in a far better position before the rain delay. However, New Zealand had done away with all their seam bowlers.

Nathan McCullum eventually clinched the match for the Kiwis, picking up 2 wickets in his over while giving away only 10 runs. The second of his wickets in the over came of a double team effort from Tim Southee and Trent Boult, bringing back memories of Southee’s spectacular effort in the IPL.

Boult continued to be the leading seam bowler for the Kiwis, picking up 2 wickets for only 53 runs in a match where all the bowlers were carted all over the ground.

This exciting game also indicated that we might be entering a new phase in ODI cricket where a score of even 400 may not be completely safe. Pity the bowlers!