New Zealand v England – Story of the match
Ben Stokes’ two wickets were not quite enough for England in Hamilton.
Ben Stokes was back in the thick of the action for England but unable to stop New Zealand nosing 1-0 up with a thrilling three-wicket win in the first one-day international in Hamilton.
Stokes intervened with two wickets on his return to the international stage, only for a stand of 178 between Ross Taylor (113) and Tom Latham (79) and then some late hitting from Mitchell Santner to get the Kiwis home with four balls to spare in pursuit of 284 for eight.
England will doubtless be relieved merely to have their go-to match-winner back in harness after his five months of unavailability following his arrest last September after a late-night incident outside a Bristol nightclub.
Stokes was restricted to 12 runs in half-an-hour of batting as Jos Buttler (79) and Joe Root (71) held sway – and then eight handy overs, returning with the wickets of Latham and Colin de Grandhomme in an unscripted second spell which could not quite prevent New Zealand’s ninth successive ODI win.
Tweet of the day
– The Guardian’s Barney Ronay sounds slightly underwhelmed by events … but Stokes still had a couple of tricks up his sleeve.
Hundred up for Woakes
When Colin Munro went, six and out, advancing and edging a swish behind, the opener became Chris Woakes’ 100th ODI victim. As he approaches his 29th birthday this week, the man known to team-mates as ‘Wiz’ because of his magical all-round skills has plenty of time on his side to climb significantly higher among England’s 12 current centurions.
Stat of the day
Law an ass?
What next?
On to Mount Maunganui on Wednesday for England’s chance to level up at 1-1.
