The Black Caps have completed a Twenty20 series comeback to share the spoils with England following a dominant performance in the fourth and final match in Nottingham.
Set a victory target of 176 at Trent Bridge, the Black Caps had a 32-ball 48 from opener Tim Seifert before Glenn Phillips accelerated the middle part of the chase with 42 off 25 balls.
Mark Chapman (40 not out off 25) saw the tourists over the line with 16 balls left to cap a sharp turnaround in the series that England started so well with heavy wins in Durham and Manchester.
New Zealand hammered England by 74 runs in Birmingham on Monday to stay alive in the series and dominated the fourth match after dismissing Jonny Bairstow (73 off 41 runs, including six sixes), who gave England a fast start.
From 105-1 early in the 11th over, England lost momentum following the removal of Bairstow and sputtered to 175-8, which always felt too little on a ground known for producing big totals.
The teams now meet in a four-match one-day international series, starting Friday night, that serves as a warmup for the upcoming Cricket World Cup in India starting in October.
In a concern for England, Bairstow didn’t keep wicket in New Zealand’s chase because of injury. Jos Buttler, who wasn’t in the starting lineup to give himself a rest, took the gloves.
The two captains were in very different moods as they were interviewed post-match by Simon Doull.
Black Caps skipper Tim Southee said he was pleased with how his side had turned the series around after poor displays in the first two matches.
“We were far from our best in those first two (matches) and the last two were performances were more what we were about. The first two games we were rotten in all three areas and the last two games we just played the way we know this team can play.”
Stand-in for England Moeen Ali was unhappy with the hosts’ effort in the field.
“I thought we just lost momentum. Very disappointing because then we couldn’t really catch up. We got a reasonable score but not good enough. We just couldn’t get it right with the ball.”
Mitchell Santer was named man of the match for 3/30 off his four overs and heaped praise on the Black Caps for remaining composed while Bairstow was making runs.
“Credit to the lads, we obviously came out pretty strong with the ball. We hung on in there and were able to take poles through the middle which was pretty key. He (Bairstow) is pretty tough to stop when he’s going, but we knew the Power Play was the best time to bat.”
