As the hosts take on the Kiwis in their first World T20 encounter in Nagpur on March 15, they will look to turn to their spinners to silence the strong New Zealand batting line-up, much like England did on Saturday, restricting New Zealand to 169/8. England chased down the target with six wickets in hand.
After blowing away Sri Lanka in their first outing in India, New Zealand's frailties against spin was exposed by England in their final World T20 warm-up game here on Saturday. The Indians should be smiling.
As the hosts take on the Kiwis in their first World T20 encounter in Nagpur on March 15, they will look to turn to their spinners to silence the strong New Zealand batting line-up, much like England did on Saturday, restricting New Zealand to 169/8. England chased down the target with six wickets in hand.
Much like they did against the Lankans, the Kiwis got off to a flier batting first, captain Kane Williamson helping them race to 68/1 in six overs. But no sooner did England captain Eoin Morgan employ his two spinners than the New Zealand batsmen went back a couple of gears. When off-spinner Moeen Ali was brought into the attack in the eighth over, New Zealand's scored read 78/1. After eight overs between Ali and leggie Adil Rashid, New Zealand were 123/5 after 15 overs. That's 45 runs with four wickets against spin.
Rashid caused maximum damage to the Kiwi batsmen, removing the set Williamson – who top-scored with an entertaining 39-ball 63 – wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi and Mitchell Santner. He only conceded 15 runs in his four-over spell, and stifled the batsmen with clever variations in pace and length. Ali, on the other hand, did receive some stick but picked up the wicket of left-handed No. 3 batsman Henry Nicholls.
England's run chase followed a similar pattern to that of their rivals. Openers Alex Hales (44) and Jason Roy (55) wanted to finish things off in a hurry, but the New Zealand spinners also got into the act. Left-arm orthodox Santner got both Roy and Joe Root holed out in the deep, while off-spinner Nathan McCullum got rid of Hales and captain Morgan to bring the Kiwis back into the contest.
With 20 needed off the final two overs, Jos Buttler and Ben Stokes smashed a six and a four, respectively, off Trent Boult to bring the equation down to six off the last over. Buttler finished things off with a four straight down the ground off Tim Southee.
Both teams also played a Super Over to practice should that situation arise, which was also won by England.
Brief scores: New Zealand 169/8 in 20 overs (K Williamson 63; A Rashid 3/15, R Topley 2/39) lost to England 170/4 in 19.2 overs (J Roy 55, A Hales 44; M Santner 2/24, N McCullum 2/25) by six wickets
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