2.10 AM Wednesday, 17 April 2024
  • City Fajr Shuruq Duhr Asr Magrib Isha
  • Dubai 04:35 05:51 12:21 15:49 18:46 20:03
17 April 2024

England win toss and bowl in New Zealand T20

Photo: AFP

Published
By AFP

England won the toss and elected to bowl against New Zealand in the fourth match of the Twenty20 tri-series in Wellington on Tuesday.

England captain Jos Buttler said he wanted to see what his attack could do on an unpredictable looking drop-in pitch at Westpac Stadium that features huge bald patches.

"T20 lends itself to bowling first sometimes and obviously we're a bit unsure how it's going to play," said Buttler, who is standing in as skipper for the injured Eoin Morgan.

Seamers Liam Plunkett and Mark Wood return to England's attack as the team looks to bounce back from two defeats to Australia in their opening matches of the series.

"We're looking for an improvement with the bat, we haven't really given our bowlers scores to defend," Buttler said.

New Zealand have also lost once in the series to Australia, who have already qualified for the final in Auckland on February 21.

The hosts on Tuesday moved to shore up their batting by including former Hong Kong international Mark Chapman and big-hitting wicketkeeper Tim Seifert.

Captain Kane Williamson was wary about the wicket and said his batsmen would have to play "smart cricket".

"There's a few unknowns on the surface, it looks a bit different than usual," he said.

"It's important we try and get a read of the surface as quickly as possible and get stuck into our work."

New Zealand: Martin Guptill, Colin Munro, Kane Williamson (capt), Mark Chapman, Ross Taylor, Colin de Grandhomme, Tim Seifert, Mitchell Santner, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.

England: Jason Roy, Alex Hales, Dawid Malan, James Vince, Jos Buttler (capt), Sam Billings, David Willey, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood

Toss: England

Umpires: Wayne Knights (NZL), Shaun Haig (NZL)

TV Umpire: Paul Wilson(AUS)

Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (IND)