New Zealand bowled out England for just 222 runs in the third and final ODI of the series in Wellington. It was yet another poor show from England’s top-order batters as the Kiwi pacers were on a roll. Blair Tickner, who claimed his second successive four-fer, was the pick of their bowlers. Notably, the Black Caps have already secured the series with victories in the first two matches.
Blair Tickner was yet again the pick of the NZ bowlers, taking 4/64 in 10 overs. The second ODI of the series, which marked Blair Tickner’s first match for NZ since May 2023, saw him claim 4/34. Across 15 ODIs, Blair Tickner has raced to 24 wickets at an average of 32.37 (ER: 6.37). Two of his three ODI four-fers have come in this series.
New Zealand pulled off a stunning two-wicket victory against England, snatching the game from the jaws of defeat as Zak Foulkes and Blair Tickner held their nerves to guide the hosts home in a tense finish. With this win, the Black Caps completed a 3-0 whitewash over a lacklustre England side.
Pitch Report and Toss
Pitch Report : The Sky Stadium last hosted an ODI in February 2019. Wellington has been known to be a good batting track. Batting is expected to get easier as the game progresses and the cracks open up. Pacers are expected to play a major role with the new ball.
The pitch at Sky Stadium for the 3rd ODI between New Zealand and England is expected to be a typical New Zealand surface favouring seam bowlers with good pace and bounce. Early in the game, the ball will likely swing under the cloudy conditions, offering bowlers an advantage. As the innings progresses, the pitch tends to ease out, assisting batters to build partnerships comfortably.
The track supports teams chasing, with average first innings scores around 240. Overall, teams winning the toss might prefer bowling first to exploit the early conditions and then rely on their batting depth to chase down targets successfully.
Toss : New Zealand skipper Mitchell Santner won the toss and chose to bowl with Kane Williamson missing out due to the niggle as Devon Conway comes in the Playing XI. England skipper Harry Brook batting first made no changes in the Playing XI.
Blair Tickner’s 4-fer skittles England for 222 in 40.2 overs
England have been hard done by their toss luck in this series and Harry Brook lost another coin flip at the Sky Stadium and had to see his under-fire batting line-up front up first in tough conditions. In no time they were down to 44 for 5 in 10.1 overs. Their struggles have been amplified by the paltry returns for their openers, who have aggregated only 29 runs from six innings in this series – the lowest such tally for England in an ODI series.
Today though, Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett were just two of the top five, who all failed to get into double figures. England had been worse off at 33 for 5 in Mount Maunganui, but their captain that day counter-attacked his way to a sensational century. Today he became the second of Jacob Duffy’s three scalps in the opening burst with Zakary Foulkes adding the other two.
Foulkes continued his impressive maiden ODI series by striking with his fourth ball, Jamie Smith feathering a cut behind the ball after almost being bowled by an in-ducker – although it required DRS to detect the edge.
Ben Duckett heaved Duffy into the boundary boards for a six in the third over, but Foulkes was at it again in his next, pinning Joe Root with an inswinger. Duckett then toe-ended a swipe off Duffy to mid-on and when Brook nicked a Duffy outswinger, England were 31 for 4 inside the powerplay.
It meant that England set a world record for the fewest runs scored by a team’s top four batters (84) in an ODI series, where they batted at least three times.
Buttler was lucky to survive another peach from Duffy first ball, while Jacob Bethell almost ran himself out looking for a non-existent single. Bethell became the first England batter into double-figures, but an impetuous slash at the first ball outside the powerplay saw him off, courtesy a flying catch from Mitchell at slip.
With Duffy and Foulkes bowling unchanged through the first 14 overs, England had to retrench. Buttler then shifted through the gears against the change bowlers, as he and Curran brought up the fifty stand from 62 balls. Blair Tickner broke through, a combination of pad and inside edge taking the ball on to Curran’s stumps. He then bowled Buttler in more emphatic fashion, nipping a full delivery inside an expansive drive to topple off stump.
There was a brief recovery as Jos Buttler and Sam Curran added 53 for the sixth wicket. The former survived a sensational first ball and got past numerous plays and misses from Duffy, who with Foulkes bowled unchanged for the first 14 overs. Just when the half-century stand threatened to blossom into something more substantial, Blair Tickner arrived into the attack and knocked over Curran through ricochets off bat and pad. Buttler lost his stumps more emphatically to a full nip-backer from Blair Tickner that flattened his off-stump.
Overton had got off the mark with a pulled four, and his third scoring shot was a flat six that punched a hole in the low wall around the boundary. Carse joined the counterattack, hitting four towering sixes in 36 off 30 balls before top-edging a swipe at Blair Tickner high into the covers. Archer managed a couple of boundaries before holing out to mid-on.
By then Overton was motoring, back-to-back thumps off Blair Tickner helping to raise a run-a-ball half-century – his first in List A cricket, coming off the back of a career-best 46 in the first ODI. England’s last-wicket yielded 36 runs, but again the top-order deficiencies proved decisive.
Jamie Overton provided more assured resistance in progressively easing conditions. He pulled a four to get off the mark and then hit a flat six that left a mark on the boundary wall. Brydon Carse joined in by slogging Mitchell Santner for back-to-back sixes as the pair put on 58 off just 50 balls. Carse fell to Blair Tickner for 36 but Overton hung around to complete his maiden ODI half-century. It took the visitors past 200 and at 40.2 overs, they’d faced more balls than in any other ODI this series, but the score was still under under par.
Blair Tickner alongside Rachin Ravindra and Daryl Mitchell powers NZ to 3-0 series sweep vs England
That New Zealand needed Blair Tickner to walk out with the bat and score the 27 remaining runs with Foulkes for the win wasn’t anticipated when Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra added 78 for the first wicket in just 12.1 overs. The slide began when the former was run-out at the non-striker’s end. After Ravindra was cleaned up by Sam Curran four short of a half-century, Will Young was prized out by Jamie Overton.
Chasing 223, New Zealand got off to a solid start as openers Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra added 78 runs. Conway made 34 before falling, while Ravindra looked fluent in his 46. However, a mini-collapse followed, with Will Young dismissed cheaply for 1 and Tom Latham run out for 10. The hosts slipped to 113/4, and the game suddenly looked wide open.
New Zealand’s chase was given a solid start by a 78-run opening stand between Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra. The run-out of Conway backing up – one of two such dismissals in the innings – triggered a mini-collapse, with three wickets falling in as many overs, but Mitchell once again provided the steady hand in another small chase, following up scores of 78 not out in Mount Maunganui and 56 not out in Hamilton.
Conway had replaced Kane Williamson, absent with a groin niggle, and endured some testing moments against Jofra Archer, who regularly touched 90mph/145kph during his opening spell. A checked drive for six over extra cover got him going, while Ravindra eased into gear with a series of boundaries off Brydon Carse. When Archer switched ends for the final powerplay over and saw it disappear for 24, New Zealand were 64 for 0 and coasting.
The stand was broken by a moment of fortune for England, with Overton again the catalyst as he attempted to field a drive from Ravindra only to see the ball deflect off his wrist, through his legs and into the non-striker’s stumps with Conway stranded. Ravindra was then bowled through the gate by Curran, before Overton ended Will Young’s unproductive series by having him caught behind off a steepling top edge.
Michael Bracewell’s brief stay ended at 13, and despite skipper Mitchell Santner’s efforts (27), England kept finding breakthroughs. Daryl Mitchell tried to anchor the innings with a gritty 44 off 68 balls, laced with four boundaries and a six, but his dismissal at 196/8 in 38.3 overs, New Zealand staring at defeat.
Regular wickets came England’s way as Tom Latham became the second batter in the innings to be run-out while Michael Bracewell fell after a brief stand with Daryl Mitchell. Crucially, Mitchell, the player of the series, scored 44 and added 41 in a seventh wicket stand with Santner. The target was brought down under 35 but Santner and Nathan Smith fell in successive overs while Mitchell fell to Curran, bringing England to within two wickets of victory.
Tom Latham, remarkably, was also run out when failing to get his bat back after Carse this time redirected a Mitchell drive into the stumps at the other end. Adil Rashid, having been held back until the 30th over, then struck with his second ball as Michael Bracewell holed out to deep midwicket with New Zealand still requiring 76.
Mitchell Santner struck two fours and two sixes in a breezy knock to bring victory in sight, but England kept chipping away. Santner holed out off Carse, Overton brought one back sharply to castle Nathan Smith, before Mitchell’s push at Curran left New Zealand having to scrap for the last few runs.
That’s when Foulkes and Blair Tickner showed remarkable composure. The pair stitched together an unbroken 30-run stand, steering the Kiwis to victory in 44.4 overs and sealing the series. However, Harry Brook in his search for wickets had justifiably bowled out his frontline bowlers and didn’t have enough firepower to prevent Blair Tickner and Foulkes to condemn the former World Champions to their 18th loss from 26 games dating back to the 2023 World Cup.
For England, Jamie Overton was the pick of the bowlers with 2/32 in ten overs, while Sam Curran also grabbed 2/46. Adil Rashid (1/32) and Brydon Carse (1/60) chipped in, but England’s batting failures proved costly yet again.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Mitchell Santner the winning NZ skipper said : (on Foulkes and Tickner at the end) It was nice. They obviously worked a little bit on their batting, so it was nice to see them do it in the game. Ticks with what looked like a lovely high front elbow, so that was a nice watch. (important toss to win) I think this game was massive.
It was obviously a little bit there with the new ball, and I guess when you can get wickets in the powerplay, it’s obviously massive. I think both Duff and Zak, when it’s swinging and whipping around, it’s obviously a challenge. So I think Jamie O and Carsey got them up to a decent score in the end and made it pretty challenging for us at the end. (on the series showing) Potentially. I think you want guys to go out there and play the way that they feel best.
And that was today, I think, the opening partnership from us was outstanding. Some good, quick bowling in the first ten, able to get through that powerplay. And then, yeah, I guess you want guys to potentially finish the job at times, but you don’t want them to, I guess, change the way they’ve been going about it and where they’ve been successful. So obviously a couple of run-outs in the middle there is never ideal. (different guys stepping up) I mean, that’s the most pleasing thing.
I mean, different guys stepping up at different times throughout every chase. But I think, you know, credit to England. They never made it easy throughout all three games. And yeah, you know, they made it pretty hard, especially on wickets. They still had a little bit in it.
I think, you know, the way Daryl was able to control the middle in all three games was outstanding for us. (on his batting) Yeah, a bit! Probably should’ve finished the job today, but it’s nice when you’ve got a good stick in hand.
Harry Brook the losing England skipper said : Absolutely. I thought it was an amazing game of cricket out at the back end. For us to nearly defend that score, which probably wasn’t quite enough, was a great effort from the lads. (not getting starts with the bat) No, definitely not. That’s obviously one thing we’ve spoken about. We didn’t quite get big enough scores to be able to defend them and give the bowlers the best chance to win us the game.
So, yeah, we’ll go back and we’ll take the learnings that we’ve made from this trip here, and we’ll try our best to be better in the future. (on struggling in this format) It probably didn’t help that I didn’t win a toss as well. It favoured the toss a little bit. So, you know, they’re the second-best team in the world for a reason. They’ve outplayed us this series. We just haven’t been good enough.
And, like I said, hopefully we just bounce back. (pitches in the series) They were tricky, obviously. They had quite a bit in them that their guys are swinging the ball and getting the most out of the pitch. So, yeah, it was tricky, but we’ve got to find ways in the future. If we want to be one of the best teams in the world and win world competitions, we need to find a way.
Blair Tickner Player of the Match for his 4-fer said : I was telling the boys I actually got that bat out of the shed. Don’t have a kit sponsor at the moment, so I just found whatever one that felt nice and, yeah, I didn’t think I’d be batting for New Zealand, but nice to get us across the line. It was obviously nice. Their main bowlers were bowled out which helped us a bit. I was just enjoying my time in the middle. It was a good experience. (if he is thrilled with two four-fers?) To be honest, I’m just happy to be out there again. The results have gone my way, and that’s always nice, but it’s easier when half the side are already back in the hut by the time I get to bowl. Credit goes at the top to our bowlers who did really well. The wickets have offered a bit for the quicks, so I can’t complain. (has this comeback reignited the fire in you?) I’d say so. I’m back to the domestic grind on Monday playing against the Bulls, and we’ll see what happens from there. If they need me again, I’ll be ready. Definitely. (on the groundstaff) They’ve produced great wickets all series, something in it for everyone. It’s been enjoyable.