The majority of the first ever sell out cricket crowd at Wellington’s Regional Stadium had yet to take their places when Tim Southee did what he has done so often in recent months. Rows of empty seats looked on as Southee began one of the great ODI spells. Swing bowling when done well is the most destructive of weapons in a bowlers arsenal, and Southee gave England a lesson in the art at the “Cake Tin”. He got seven wickets, four of them bowled. This was the best ever return by a New Zealander in ODIs.
He began with an over of balls pitched outside off stump and moving away to Ian Bell. There was prodigious swing, but it was happening early enough that Bell could leave it alone. Bell had faced nine deliveries from Southee by the start of the fifth over, including an unfair wide, and he had managed just one run of him. This time Southee pitches the ball on the stumps and the ball moves a lot less. Bell gropes at the ball and misses. A perfect ball clips his off stump to dismiss him for just eight.
New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum, left, talks with England’s captain Eoin Morgan. AP
Gary Ballance gets a single off his first ball to bring Moeen Ali on strike facing the pumped up Southee. Moeen decides that he needs to attack and hits the next three deliveries for boundary fours, although the last of those was edged over first slip. The start of Southee’s next over, the seventh of the England innings, sees Moeen on strike again. The first ball is short, too short in fact, sailing over the England left hander’s head for a wide. A ball on a decent length follows this, a rare one that doesn’t swing.
Moeen has had his issues with the bouncer, and he would have been expected something on the short side again. Instead Southee goes much fuller, swinging the ball back into the left hander. Moeen prodded forward but he couldn’t get the bat down in time after hanging on the back foot. He was bowled for 20
Southee not only outplayed both England openers, he out-thought them as well.
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England were once again shorn of their opening pair inside the PowerPlay, as they have in nine of their last ten innings. The only time they have managed to last longer than the first ten overs in that time was the 113 runs that Bell and Moeen put on against Australia at Hobart. England went on to lose that game.
England stuck with the decision to move the increasingly impressive James Taylor down the order to six and picking Ballance at three, and for the second time in as many games the move didn’t prove fruitful. As against Australia, Ballance fell early. As against Australia he was caught meekly hitting the ball into the air in front of the wicket, this time for just 10. Ballance is a fine player, but expecting a man who had batted in just once since September to perform in a World Cup is a stretch.
So once again Eoin Morgan walked out to bat with England in trouble. With four ducks in his last five innings the pressure could not have been more acute. It showed as Morgan crawled along at a strike rate of just 41 and batting for 28 deliveries before hitting his first boundary. In fact, he hadn’t hit a ball to the ropes since 16th January. While that cover drive that took him to 15, it did not release him from the doldrums of bad form. Eventually the pressure told after he had added just two more runs in the next 13 balls. He tried to hit the ball over long on only to be brilliantly caught by Adam Milne for 17.
Brendon McCullum, aggressive in his captaincy as ever, brought Southee back and he picked up from where he had left off. Belatedly Taylor arrived at the crease, but even England’s in form batsman could not combat the Southee storm. He had his stumps rearranged for a duck. Southee then picked up the wickets of Buttler, Woakes, Broad and Finn in quick succession as England stumbled to 123 all out having been 103 for three. Southee’s 7-33 will be long remembered.
The only England resistance came from Joe Root who high scored with 46, the last man to fall top edging a pull to fine leg. In New Zealand’s last match they bowled Scotland out for 142. Many used this performance to question Scottish involvement. England managed 19 runs fewer. New Zealand, and particularly Southee, were fantastic but this was abject from the English. There is little as humiliating as not batting enough overs to make it to the lunch break in an ODI.
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New Zealand had half an hour to bat before the break. Brendon McCullum showed the English how good a pitch this was. He stepped away to the leg side and carved the ball over the covers. When England went short he pulled to the leg side. England bowled both sides of the wicket. They delivered balls that were too full or too short. There was nothing wrong with the pitch but England did not give the ball a chance to swing. This was the very definition of shambolic.
By the time the sides went to the lunch break New Zealand were 112-1 off nine overs. Yes, nine overs to score over 100 runs. McCullum managed 77 runs off 25 balls in an innings that contained the fastest ever World Cup 50. Quite why a break was needed with 12 runs required is uncertain, but those are the rules.
Upon resumption victory was achieved with a minimum of fuss with almost 40 overs to spare. This is England’s worst ever start to a World Cup. This is their second largest ODI defeat in terms of balls remaining. Appropriately, the winning runs came in the form of wides.
A quarter final looks a long way off.
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