A nail-biting encounter in Wellington produced a four-run victory for England in the third ODI against New Zealand. The Cricketer crunches the numbers from the big game...
A nail-biting encounter in Wellington produced a four-run victory for England in the third ODI against New Zealand.
The Cricketer crunches the numbers from the big game...
When Joe Root pulled Tim Southee over midwicket for four to go to six, the England captain became England’s leading one-day international runscorer in New Zealand.
The previous occupant of the top spot, with a modest 415 runs, was Allan Lamb.
Root, who made 20, now has 431.
Ian Bell, Graham Thorpe and Nick Knight all make the top five.
England’s struggles on a tricky playing surface early on were not just the figment of the viewers’ imagination.
Data from statisticians CrickViz revealed that the English batsmen played false shots to 25 per cent of the balls they faced during the opening 10-over powerplay.
That compares to 19.9 per cent in the first ODI and just 11.2 per cent in the second.
England's players in Wellington
With a gentle nudge for one to reach 30 in the 28th over, England skipper Eoin Morgan hit a major landmark.
Between his time with the English and Irish setups, Morgan has racked up 6,000 one-day international runs.
He is currently second in the all-time England ODI runscorers list, with only Bell ahead of him.
Colin de Grandhomme enjoyed the unpredictability of the drop-in pitch at the Cake Tin.
Not content with the wicket of Joe Root, nor with breaking Ben Stokes’ bat, the allrounder also recorded the most economical figures by a New Zealander in almost exactly three years.
His 1-24 in 10 overs was last bettered by Daniel Vettori (4-18) against Afghanistan in 2015. The last time a Kiwi seamer was this miserly? Mitchell McClenaghan (4-20) against South Africa in Paarl in 2013.
In the 34th over of the game, England reached their highest ever score at the Westpac Stadium, on their fourth visit.
Their three previous efforts were 89 (2002), 123 (2015) and 130 (2008).
It’s fair to say this has not been a happy hunting ground.
Given the statistic above, it’s perhaps not all that surprising that the partnership between Morgan and Stokes for the fourth wicket is the highest by any England pair in ODIs at the Cake Tin.
Amazingly, no other partnership had gone beyond 50 prior to the skipper and his allrounder coming together on Saturday.
Kane Williamson reached 5,000 ODI runs with a lovely cut off Mark Wood that raced to the backward point boundary.
He reach the landmark in the fifth fastest time, in terms of innings - 119.
Hashim Amla (who took just 101 innings), Vivian Richards, Virat Kohli and Brian Lara are the only men to have achieved the haul quicker.
This will have delighted the England backroom team.
It took until the 200th ball of the New Zealand innings - a wide by Chris Woakes - for the visitors to concede an extra of any kind.
Proper discipline (Woakes bowled another wide two balls later, mind).