DHAKA: Brandon McCullum’s record-breaking fifty and Tim Southee’s career-best seven-wicket propelled New Zealand to defeat England by eight wickets in the teams’ ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Pool A match in Wellington on Friday.
New Zealand had shown something special both in their bowling and batting. Tim Southee destroyed English batting lineup, taking seven wickets. Brandon McCullum smashed English bowling, breaking his own record of fastest fifty in the world cup.
Chasing England-set small target of 124 runs, Kiwis captain Brandon McCullum and MJ Guptill began the opening.
Brandon McCullum proved his batting capability once again, scoring 77 runs off just 25 balls before becoming victim of a clear bowled out by CR Woakes.
He built his innings hitting eight boundaries and seven over boundaries with a strike rate of 308.00. Brandon McCullum hit fifty in just 18 balls, breaking his previous record of fastest fifty off 20 balls in ICC World Cup 2007.
MJ Guptill contributed 22 runs off 22 balls before CR Woakes made him stop. KS Williamson and LRPL Taylor were not out.
New Zealand reached the victory in 12.2 overs, scoring 125 runs with eight wickets remaining.
Earlier, TIM Southee produced career-best figures of 7-33 as New Zealand bundled England out for 123 runs in 33.2 overs.
In England innings, only JE Root was successful. He scored 46 runs off 70 balls. MM Ali and EJG Morgan added 20 and 17 runs respectively.
TIM Southee stroke first, sending both English openers - IR Bell and MM Ali - to the pavilion. TA Boult and DL Vettori also bagged the wickets of GS Balance and EJG Morgan respectively. AF Milne took JE Root’s wicket.
Tim Southee stroke again, bagging JWA Taylor, JC Buttler, JCR Woakes SCJ Broad and ST Finn one by one.
England won the toss and decided to bat. The match kicked off at 7:00am Bangladesh time at Westpac Stadium in Wellington.
Wining captain Brandon McCullum said: "We wanted to bat first as well. I thought the pitch was pretty good, but it is just the ability of our bowlers to swing the ball in the air. World-class performance, the crowd was amazing. Amazing for us to have this attack up our sleeve, and we have guys on the sidelines who have done well for us in the past. Huge first week in the tournament, now some time to regroup.”
“One area you can control is fielding. Allows a captain to make subtle changes as well. Our fielding today as good as it has been in a pretty long time. I am sure England will bounce back but good to get the points against a pretty strong England side. We might have a quiet beer in the dressing room [when asked what the plan is for the rest of the day]," he added.
Defeated captain Eoin Morgan said: "They bowled really well. It swung throughout our innings, which was pretty unexpected. We expected it to be batting friendly throughout the innings.”
“First two games. Difficult to regroup. We concentrate on simple things from here on. I feel a lot better as batsman after today. McCullum is not the ideal candidate to be bowling at when you have only 123 on board," he added.
Tim Southee, the Man of the Match, said: "A packed house, pretty sepcial to come out in front of them,". "But I think we have been bowling well as a unit together. Just that today everything fell together.”
“Shane Bond has been great. He gives us a lot of confidence. A lot of work he does behind the scenes. As a player you have a bit of a niggle any time, but with the work that Chris Donaldson has done with us, we are a pretty fit unit. Another great team performance," he added.
With this match, England lost the matches for two straight times. Tournament co-host Australia defeated England in their fist match.
News Zeeland, another co-host of the tournament, topped the Pool A point list with three consecutive victories, defeating Sri Lanka in first match, Scotland in second, and, England in third match at Wellington.
BDST: 1203 HRS, FEB 17, 2015
** Southee’s seven packed England in 123
