After their two walkovers against New Zealand, England’s men felt the painful side of a thumping in their third Twenty20 at Edgbaston.
Lusty batting from Finn Allen and Glenn Phillips reinvigorated the visitors’ cause as New Zealand posted 202 for five. England, the great chasers, stumbled at the first fence and never got back up, bowled out 74 runs short in the 19th over. Having wasted their own powerplay to the tune of 25 for one, they were 67 for four at the halfway point and, for all their batting depth, never looked like recovering.
For New Zealand it was a satisfying arrival into a series that seemed to have caught them cold. “As a side we look to stay pretty mellow whether we win or lose,” said Allen, player of the match for his 83 runs off 53 balls. “We wanted to focus on our individual roles and we pretty much nailed that as a team … it’s something we do well as a side, coming into every game with a fresh mindset.”
New Zealand’s batting misfired in the first two games, with Allen frustrated by his own failures to capitalise on decent starts. On Sunday even the first few swings and heaves had the effortful look of someone hand‑cranking a Model T. New Zealand’s gears were still crunching, Devon Conway turning too slowly to make a third run and a good throw from Moeen Ali catching him out of his crease.
Allen survived his own run‑out scare, not to mention a skyer to Will Jacks, who covered a heroic distance from deep midwicket only to drop it within touching distance of Chris Jordan, who had made his own run from long leg. But Allen planned to keep hitting until something came off, and this time it did.
It was in partnership with Phillips – after Tim Seifert was stumped off Liam Livingstone – that the engine finally began to purr. Phillips was in confident form, unleashing a mighty pull off Livingstone, and when Jos Buttler brought Adil Rashid back in the 15th over he was met with three consecutive sixes from Allen. The first went in the direction of Kidderminster, the second towards Coventry, and the third back over the bowler’s head was en route to Worcester before the pavilion got in the way.
“I’ve changed my method against spin a little bit so it’s nice to have that come off against one of the world’s best spinners,” Allen said. The partnership added 88 in 47 balls and after Allen was bowled by Luke Wood, Phillips kept things motoring. He had 69 runs off 34 balls when Gus Atkinson removed him with a yorker. The England fast bowler reinforced his usefulness at the death when he skimmed Daryl Mitchell’s glove to dismiss him four balls later.
Tim Southee had replaced Lockie Ferguson and Adam Milne with Kyle Jamieson and Matt Henry, and the decision paid off as England’s top order struggled to hit either man off the square. Jacks was out in Jamieson’s first over, attempting a massive hit and merely slicing to cover; his 11 runs off eight balls represents a downward trend in these games so far, following previous scores of 22 and 19. Dawid Malan scored two runs from an innings that lasted 11 balls but felt far longer, and by the time Jonny Bairstow was out slog-sweeping England were 30 for three and six overs down.
Harry Brook’s first failure in the series could not have been worse timed. Ish Sodhi had just been denied the second of two lbw decisions by DRS when Brook pulled the very next delivery to mid-on.
While Buttler attempted to muster some meaningful resistance alongside Moeen, Sodhi and Jamieson scooped three wickets apiece amid the inevitable holings-out. “They did something we didn’t, which was get that important partnership,” the England batting coach, Marcus Trescothick, said. “We needed to get partnerships and we never really did that from the start.”
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This was the first attempt at a carbon-neutral match at Edgbaston: no single‑use plastics, free shuttle buses, increased use of renewable energy. Perhaps England were doing their bit by encouraging people to switch off their TVs. They can claim a sustainable outcome, too: defeat here keeps the series alive for the game at Trent Bridge on Tuesday.
