England 143 for 3 (Malan 54, Brook 43*) beat New Zealand 139 for 9 (Phillips 41, Carse 3-23, Wood 3-37) by seven wickets
England’s rejigged T20I team powered out of their mothballs with a crushing seven-wicket victory under the floodlights at Chester-le-Street, as they hunted down a sub-par target of 140 with six full overs to spare.
In reply England never looked like letting their grip on the contest slip, despite the first-over loss of Jonny Bairstow, and once Malan had anchored the chase with his 17th fifty-plus score in 56 T20I innings, Brook and Liam Livingstone, with a huge blow for six over deep midwicket, closed out the chase in short order.
False dawn in the powerplay
Allen’s most recent on-field act, in the green of Southern Brave, had been to slam 69 from 38 balls in a riotous (but unsuccessful) opening onslaught in last week’s Hundred Eliminator. And so the die seemed to have been cast when he climbed into a massive yahoo at Wood’s second delivery of the match. He didn’t connect on that occasion, but each of the next three flew out of the park – one down the ground, two high over midwicket – in an apparent signal of another powerplay charge.
What followed, however, was a near-complete lockdown from England’s new-look seam attack. Sam Curran applied the handbrake with a five-run second over before the debutant Carse conceded a solitary run off the bat with his relentless deck-thumping approach.
A switch of ends for Wood then paid early dividends as Devon Conway snicked a drive with no footwork to fall for 3 from 8, and after Carse had burst through Allen’s defence with an 87mph leg-stump-seeker, Wood made it two in three overs as Tim Seifert was suckered by the angle from round the wicket to lose his off stump for 9.
New Zealand’s powerplay thus amounted to 18 for 0 from three balls, and 20 for 3 from the remaining 33, to set in motion a batting display that was never able to recover any poise.
Spin turns the screw
With the introduction of spin in the seventh over, New Zealand’s innings suffered a similar false dawn. Mark Chapman picked Adil Rashid’s first-ball legbreak and smoked him over midwicket for six… but his team managed just five more runs in the next nine before Moeen Ali, a scourge of left-handers, bowled Chapman with a beauty that held its line from round the wicket to take the top of off stump.
At 49 for 4, New Zealand were once again in need of a big performance from Daryl Mitchell, but on this occasion, even his long levers couldn’t turn the tide. Liam Livingstone entered the attack with a startlingly sharp legbreak that leapt past Mitchell’s edge, and – seemingly spooked – Mitchell climbed through the line of his very next ball, but could only pick out Brook on the long-off boundary. Rashid was then rewarded for an unremarkably excellent three-over spell with the soft dismissal of Mitchell Santner, who toe-ended a cut to point.
Carse applies the coup de grace
Thereafter, it was all about the scramble to the bottom of the innings. Glenn Phillips was New Zealand’s best hope of a competitive total, but his subdued 41 from 38 was ended by the sharpest take of the innings, as Curran in the covers read the fade on a sliced drive at a Wood slower ball, and leapt to his left to cling on in both hands.
Adam Milne and Ish Sodhi then landed a six apiece off consecutive balls to at least hoist England’s target past a run a ball, but Carse was on hand to shut down the innings in style. His first ball of the 20th over was an inch-perfect offcutter, on that hard in-between length that skidded past Milne’s wipe to leg; his fifth was fired into the toes, demanding that Sodhi took on the longest boundary, and he duly failed.
Carse had opened his account with 1 for 3 in his first two overs. Now he closed the innings down with 3 for 23 all told, his best in all T20s, and delivered with that familiar pitch-battering poise that Liam Plunkett once brought to England’s white-ball attack. For a man who wasn’t initially picked for this T20I squad, it was quite the way to celebrate becoming England’s 100th cap in the format.
England’s batters make short work of target
Buttler will doubtless be back to the top of the order come England’s defence of their T20 title in the Caribbean and the USA next June, but his self-demotion to No. 6 was an acknowledgement that others have greater points to prove with the 50-over version looming.
There’s Bairstow for example – Buttler’s intended opening partner in Australia last winter until his horrific leg injury, and the man expected to front up alongside Jason Roy in India in five weeks’ time. His first England white-ball innings in 13 months at least came at a 200 strike-rate: a first-ball pump for four through midwicket, then a second-ball snick to slip off Tim Southee, after a leg-side wide for good measure.
There’s Will Jacks too, a potential travelling reserve in India, and a definite candidate for T20 opening honours, after his trophy-winning exploits (with bat and ball) for Oval Invincibles in the Hundred this month. His lacerating power was on full display once more as he greeted Lockie Ferguson’s first over with two fours and an inside-out carve for six, and having ignited a 61-run powerplay with 22 in 11 balls, he muffed a pull off Sodhi from his very next ball.
There was Malan … inevitably. England’s most relentless white-ball performer missed his glory moment when injury ruled him out of the T20 World Cup final at the MCG, but he is in the 50-over squad as the nominal reserve opener, and on this evidence will be itching to make his case throughout the coming contests.
With his habitual faith in his own acceleration, Malan turned a doughty innings of 4 from 10 balls into a formidable 40-ball half-century, with five fours and two sixes – each of them mown with awesome power over the leg side off Sodhi and Santner respectively. He looked aghast to give it away at 54 from 42, but at 116 for 3 in the 13th over, he’d already drained the contest of any jeopardy.
And then, inevitably, there was Brook. The most notable absentee from England’s World Cup plans was clinically violent in belting them over the line with 43 not out from 27 balls, including back-to-back blats for six off Sodhi, over cover and midwicket respectively, and a third massive launch over the ropes as Southee served up a slower ball and was made to travel the distance. Whether it’s too late for him to change any minds that matter, only the selectors know for sure. But on this occasion, he barely broke sweat in looking a class apart.
Andrew Miller is UK editor of ESPNcricinfo. @miller_cricket