Recent Match Report – England vs New Zealand 3rd ODI 2023

England 368 (Stokes 182, Malan 96, Boult 5-51, Lister 3-69) vs New Zealand

As he battled his knee injury, Stokes opted to stand and deliver. He crunched nine sixes, including six in his final 31 balls. When he holed out to square leg, attempting to hit a tenth, the sell-out crowd stood to applaud the hero of England’s 2019 World Cup triumph, no doubt imbued with the belief that he could yet inspire them to a successful defence of their title in India.

While Stokes took centre stage, this might have been the day that England’s World Cup squad worked itself out. With Jason Roy ruled out for a third consecutive ODI after suffering his second back spasm in six days, Malan returned from paternity leave and took his chance. His 96 off 95 balls was his second half-century of the series and his ninth 50-plus score out of 20 in ODIs.

Malan appeared to be the spare batter when England named their provisional 15-man squad a month ago. After being dropped by Trent Rockets in the Hundred and a scratchy T20I series, Malan’s spot looked vulnerable – not least with Harry Brook, who missed the initial cut, pitching an irresistible case.

But it now feels increasingly likely that Malan will feature on October 5, when England play New Zealand in the opening game of the World Cup in Ahmedabad, quite possibly as Jonny Bairstow’s opening partner. And if Malan is pencilled in for that role, Brook might well edge Roy to the remaining batting spot in the squad, given his versatility and Roy’s patchy fitness record.

After England’s victory at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday, Jos Buttler and his players spoke “about freeing ourselves up… trying to get back to being even more positive, even more aggressive”. Malan and Stokes responded accordingly, bringing up a 100-run stand in 15.1 overs; Malan attacked the new ball, with six crisply-struck boundaries inside the first 10 overs.

Malan was typically strong on the pull, twice nailing Ben Lister through square leg for four, and raced into the 80s by flogging Kyle Jamieson over long-on. He strangled Boult down the leg side after getting a little stuck as three figures approached, but at 212 for 3 after 30.1 overs, he had laid the ideal platform.

In the end, England couldn’t quite make it up towards the score in the region of 400 which they had looked set for. Buttler sparkled briefly for 38 off 24 but Stokes’ dismissal in the 45th over triggered a collapse of 5 for 20; Boult, the pick of the New Zealand attack, claimed a sixth ODI five-for by rearranging Gus Atkinson’s stumps.

There was some mitigation for New Zealand. With Mitchell Santner jarring his knee at the Ageas Bowl on Sunday and Ish Sodhi rested, they relied on two allrounders in Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra to bowl spin, while neither Jamieson nor Lister will feature for them in the World Cup, barring injury.

But Stokes ensured that England took advantage of their weakened attack, scoring 59 off the 35 balls of spin he faced – including three huge sixes which rendered Ravindra unusable after his second over. It came as a surprise when he eventually fell to Lister, but not before breaking Roy’s record for the highest innings by an Englishman in ODIs.