England will play the deciding one-day international against New Zealand on Saturday with the series tied at 1-1.
Alastair Cook’s side are looking for their first ODI series win in New Zealand since 1994, after their comprehensive eight wicket win over the Kiwis in the last one-day match.
England were beaten by New Zealand in the first ODI fairly comfortably, but bounced back in the second match in Napier to level the series. Cook’s men had lost their previous five one-day matches before Wednesday’s victory.
With confidence high, England will be wanting to take the series now and carry the momentum into the Test matches next month. The touring side’s most impressive performer so far has been 22-year-old Joe Root, who’s 79 not-out in the last match helped secure England’s triumph.
Root has 135 runs so far from the two ODIs and is also the only English batsman in history to make 30 or more runs in each of their first six one-day innings. Jonathan Trott has been the only other Englishman to make an impression with the bat, but neither of them have been as successful as the Black Caps’ captain Brendon McCullum.
The New Zealand skipper currently has 143 runs from the series with some big hitting, whilst Ross Taylor’s century for the home side at Napier has increased his overall total to 122.
It has been argued that the injury and subsequent absence from the last ODI of opener Martin Guptill, helped significantly towards England’s win. The touring team should therefore use this to their advantage if they want to take both the Twenty20 and ODI series’.
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