England bring their “A” game to the table for the decider at Christchurch…

England bring their "A" game to the table for the decider at Christchurch…

We headed to Wellington with the series delicately poised at 1-1 the hosts won the toss and put England in on a surface that had patches of grass and with more gremlins in the pitch then the film. England posted 230/9 which looked to be 20 short of par. New Zealand went into bat chasing a relatively low target for victory, on a wicket which was now gremlin free and behaving normally. The Blackcaps lost Guptil early. Williamson and Munro added 68 until England’s spin twins blew away the middle order. Kane Williams ignited the Blackcaps with support from the well abled Santner and looked to be coasting until a straight drive from Williamson off the bowling of Woakes (who deflected it onto the stumps) sees Santner run out for the first time in the series. He does appear to be a dangerous player coming in at 8, he won the game with a 6 at Hamilton. Despite a superb century from Williamson England go 2-1 up after New Zealand failed to hit the required boundary off the last ball.

So off we go to Dunedin. England once again loose the toss and we are put in to bat. After an electric start from Roy and Bairstow adding 77 for the first wicket Bairstow was joined by Root and looked to be heading for a score close to 400 when Bairstow was caught out to Munroe for a brilliant 138. With the score on 267/2 and just under 14 overs left in the locker we once again witnessed a middle order collapse which saw England loose 7 wickets for 46 runs not the most intelligent of batting by the middle order. We always looked likely to win until Ross Taylor came to the crease, and started playing an array of shots all around the wicket finishing on one leg and career best 181 not out against his name and a DG Bradman-esque average of 76 for the series.

So….. Hagley Oval Christchurch is the venue for the ODI series decider, after England winning the toss and electing to bowl England never really looked like they were going to loose. Chris Woakes taking 3/32 and Rashid 3/42 did the damage, eventually the hosts loosing the first 7 wickets for 97 posted 223 well short of par on that wicket. Bairstow and Hales needing under 5 an over to win their 5th successive ODI series started very confidently and raced to 155 before Bairstow was out  “hit wicket” on 104 off the bowling of Boult. England continued to score quickly, after Hales was out Root and Stokes steered England home with a little over 13 overs remaining. Bairstow was Man of the Match and not to be outdone Chris Woakes was Man of the Series, I have said before, in my opinion, that Woakes is the most improved England player and an outstanding all rounder. We now have two test matches in Auckland & Christchurch.

Our next ODI tour is in Sri Lanka in October with Matthew Hoggard joining us so if your interested in coming please give Sara or Richard a call they would love to hear from you. We are holding an inaugural 10 over client match in Colombo and inaugural golf day in Kandy too.

I would like to thank Phill, Kay, Colin, Helen, Andrew, Alyson, Dennis, Melvin, Ann Marie, Michael & Kim for a wonderful time we had during the ODI tour and look forward to meeting you on a forthcoming tour.

All the best
Gary