England take confidence from second win
An puts England in great heart for the 50-over series that starts in Wellington on Saturday.
Their extra experience at this form of the game shone like a beacon under the Lancaster Park floodlights - and it is clear that they took great confidence from their .
Luke Wright and Phil Mustard got the innings away to a tremendous start, thrashing 65 from the first six overs – but this was the only time that New Zealand were in the game as they took four wickets in four overs to reduce England to 76-4.
Mini-collapses such as that are very much a part of Twenty20 cricket, and the pressure on the batting team can quickly build to breaking point.
But Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah never appeared to be the least bit fazed by the situation and, after a cautious start, went on to add 107 in just 10 overs.
Collingwood’s 54 from 27 balls contained five sixes - England hit 12 in all, and Shah's 47 was full of cleverly placed strokes rather than big hits.
New Zealand’s batsmen have still to work out that there is more to batting in this cricket than reckless swiping - they should learn from Shah - and they completely played into the hands of England’s bowlers who appear to have the ball on a piece of string at the moment.
Stuart Broad's clever change of pace deceived the batsmen virtually every time, and Ryan Sidebottom is bowling yorkers at will.
I must also mention Mustard behind the stumps. Slick and unfussy, he really looks the part. It's a shame that, inevitably, he will be judged on his batting too.
Although his hitting here was spectacular, he does appear capable of batting in just one way and he should have kept his head when England lost three wickets in three overs rather than slogging the ball up to long-on and leaving his team with two new batsmen at the crease.
But that was the only blemish on what was otherwise a flawless performance by England.
Although veterans Jacob Oram and Daniel Vettori are both hopeful of returning to the team for Saturday's first one-day international, Collingwood's team move into the phase two of the tour in good spirits.
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I think it is worth mentioning that the England fielding was exceptional. This must be great for the bowlers. One criticism of the Sky commentary is that we never know who and where the fielders are and TV limits the view of the field quite a bit. In 20-20 fielding is a huge part of the game and yet we only hear about the batting and bowling. Hope the Beeb will put this right. Bell and Collingwood are really fast and this puts a tight ring around the opposition. This augurs well for the 50 over game when good fielding can create a stranglehold on batting. Bell's fielding might be the reason he's in the 20-20 considering his inexperience in that form of the game.
The team spirit is outstanding under Capt. Colley.
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hello folks,
well done the boys.
small grounds? old kp not got going yet!!!!!!!!!!!!! in fact i reckon he could do with a shot across the bows and be left out for the 1st one day game.
still happy days
t.t.f.n.
roger
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i think its clinical by the england players
showing some sort of consistency
i hope they do well in the onedayers and test
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Well played Luke Wright.
He needed a good knock and that should give him the confidence to be able to open in the 50 over game, or at least bat higher than 7
Im upbeat about the upcoming series, we need to recover from a somewhat dissapointing series in Sri Lanka. Credit to Colly, hope he can keep this great team spirit up.
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yes, well done England - most encouraging to see a team enjoying playing together and enjoying winning.
Aggers - [sigh] is it really such a shame that Mustard will be judged on his batting? that seems like a bit of a hollow moan.
ps. McCullum is blatantly the key wicket for us. shove it up him, Siders!
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I see Adil Rashid out bowled and out batted Panesar for the Lions, I wonder when his time will come in the full England side?
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Well played England. Am confident they can win the ODIs too, though it won't be this easy.
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Aggers,
Give it a rest, the Colonel is a breath of fresh air, he does play one way, but this is exaggerated in the 20/20's. Comfortably the best keeper/batsman in the Country in the short form of the game, and can develop into a top Test keeper.
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I think Mustard did what he felt was right and keep the mommentum going you can't slow down everytime a wicket goes down but when two went Colly and Shah made the right decision to play as they did.
I think that Mustard has real potential to be the long term solution behind the stumps as if we want a wk/btsm in the Gilchrist mold then he is that. His keeping I have always felt was very impressive and unlike Prior he shows great movement and agility behing the sticks which enable him to get to wides, byes and catches. With regard to his batting he is a positive player and I think should not be castigated as he finds his feet as mistakes will happen - it is worth noting that attacking cricketers can take the game away from the other side in a matter of overs but they can also lose thier wickets through misadventure.
Anyway I we should respect a good English result and move forward. Even if you say this was a weakened NZ side I would argue these were better performances all round than at the Twenty20 WC.
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Well played England. Am confident they can win the ODIs too, though it won't be this easy.
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Well done to Colly the batsman, up until now he looked totally out of place in this form of the game, and was probably getting into the team purely by virtue of being captain
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Wicket keepers should be able to bat, of course, but their ability behind the stumps should always come first. While the better batsman of two keepers might score ten or twenty runs more per innings, the better keeper might take a catch that the other couldn't and save the team far more runs than that.
I think it is far more productive to take the best keeper in the land and improve their batting through training than it is to do the reverse.
Mustard looks promising, and yes, he could finally be the long-term solution to England's wicket keeping problem, but how many times have we said that about someone before?
(By the way, if this message appears multiple times, it's because something is up with the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳'s software!)
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I'm a big fan of the Colonel and I cannot see how he can be castigated by Aggers for getting us off to a belter of a start (our best start in Twenty20 ODI's?)! He has a fine eye and a fearless streak that is a joy to behold. Not to mention the fact that he is also very adroit behind the stumps - a far cry from Prior's leaden-footed, cack-handed efforts.
It looks like the 'Age of Mustard' may have finally dawned! Should add a little spice to our team...
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Well done England. Great performance again. It is good to see Collingwood smiling and looking like he is, at last, enjoying being England captain.
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I listened to the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ commentary for the second half of this match and heard you say twice that Collingwood scored five sixes. You say that again in this article, and that England got twelve sixes in total. However the scorecard on ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ shows that Collingwood got five fours but only three sixes and England got a total of ten sixes.
Who/which is right?
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Well done to the boys, though we should remember that this NZ team are currently in a rebuilding phase after retirements from McMillan, Astle, Bond, Fleming as well as Vettori and Oram out injured.
Bring on the ODI's!
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Come on this New Zealand side without Bond, Vettori and Oram would probably struggle to beat Bangladesh, let alone England...
But games still need to be won, and England will take confidence into the ODIs and Tests.
It's good to see the selectors are stiking with the young and unexperienced: this series is the perfect time to get some experience and confidence under their belts.
Let's hope England can take this form into the ODIs !!!
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I was hoping that nobody would mention the missing players from NZ. When we got thumped by the Aussies with half our team out nobody mentions it, yet when we win a series and the opposition has a couple of players out it's always a case of "well done, but....". England outplayed a NZ side that are still a tough team to play against. The fact that a game is so one sided can still mean that one side has played out of their skins
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Aggers, you have been a little unfair on Mustard. A very accomplished keeper, no dramatics or rash movements. In 20/20 he has a definitive role as an opener - slog. This he does well, because he has a good eye (and has talent). Technically, he is a good batsman - in the longer form, 50 overs or test, play him at 7 and he will perform as required. Don't knock him, he's got what it takes.
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