NICK FRIEND takes a look at the stand-out topics for discussion from England's third T20 international in New Zealand...
Ultimately, this was a game that England looked to have all sewn up. Before Eoin Morgan was caught at long-on off the last ball of Mitch Santner’s spell, they needed 44 off 34 balls with eight wickets in hand.
By the time Tom Curran had helplessly flayed the final ball of the match over cover, England had added just 30 more runs.
At one stage, they lost five wickets for ten runs in just 18 deliveries – a defeat founded on poor game management and inexperience.
Morgan, Dawid Malan and James Vince all appeared – at different points – to have the match in the palm of their hands. All three holed out just at the peak of England’s control.
Coming into this third clash, the side picked by England carried just 142 T20I appearances between them.
All six players who had never appeared in a T20I ahead of this series were included, with Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson making debuts to join Lewis Gregory, Sam Curran, Pat Brown and Saqib Mahmood as fully-fledged international cricketers.
With Jonny Bairstow and Chris Jordan left out of the team for this one, and Joe Denly unavailable because of his ankle problem, this may well have been among the younger – and less experienced – sides ever fielded on a senior England tour.
As a playing eleven, it was a nod to the T20 Blast and to English cricket’s domestic system; Mahmood was the MVP in the Royal London One-Day Cup, while Brown, Gregory, Banton and Parkinson all enjoyed fine Blast campaigns.
As for Curran, who bowled beautifully for the most part here, it still seems bizarre to think that the Surrey allrounder had never played a T20I before this trip.
Tom Banton and Matt Parkinson made their England debuts
Quite frankly, England set the bar quite low for themselves in the field in the second game between these sides. Five catches went down in Wellington in a sloppy defeat.
Here, the tone was set by Tom Curran – not only with the ball, but with an outrageous catch over his shoulder to end a powerplay onslaught from Martin Guptill.
A Pat Brown slower ball outfoxed the powerful opener, but Curran covered close to 30 yards before taking the catch on the run. From then on, England’s fielding was much closer to the standards set during their run to World Cup glory.
There was a single blemish as Banton slid past one on the midwicket boundary, but Morgan will have been far happier with this effort.
It was not all plain sailing, however; eight wides and two no-balls gave New Zealand a helping hand on the way to 180 for seven.
Saqib Mahmood was a prime offender; the Lancashire seamer has not been at his best through his first two games in international cricket.
He seemed to struggle with the limits of his field. Forced to bowl in at the hip of the right-hander with a legside dominant field, he regularly strayed down the leg-side, while Martin Guptill took an immediate fancy to him. Still, early days for the 22-year-old.
Superb, yet underbowled. He was only given two overs by Morgan, but cleaned up Tim Seifert with only his fifth ball in international cricket. It was, perhaps, not how he would have imagined his maiden scalp – the New Zealand wicketkeeper bowled through his legs as he attempted to slog-reverse-sweep the young leg-spinner over the offside.
He was taken for one maximum by Colin de Grandhomme, who check drove him over extra-cover – the shot of the day by some distance. Yet apart from that, it was hard to fault Parkinson.
He had vowed in the buildup to the game that he would stick to his guns, tossing it up and baiting batsmen to come after him. Not a drag-down anywhere to be seen.
That he was not brought back may well have been the result of a strong breeze across the ground, which complicated the two captains’ thought-processes all day. However, it would have been a fascinating duel between the gutsy leg-spinner and New Zealand’s big-hitting finishers.
In amongst the analysis, however, a truly heartwarming moment as he picked up a first international wicket. There will be many more. His twin Callum tweeted along as he followed his brother from his bed back on the other side of the world. There will be no prouder sibling after a tough summer.
Lockie Ferguson bowled a fine spell for New Zealand
There was some talk after the first couple of T20Is that Colin de Grandhomme’s position – coming in ahead of Ross Taylor – seemed an odd role for a bludgeoning hitter. Here, however, he proved his worth.
On a tacky, slow pitch, he hammered three sixes – one over the sightscreen off Pat Brown was a particularly brutal stroke.
It was a supreme combination of power and composure; with Blair Tickner picked ahead of Daryl Mitchell for this one, New Zealand were a batsman light.
And thus, he played the situation. When the ball was in his ark – Mahmood often fed him as he strayed onto his hip, he was ruthless.
For long spells in the second half of this game, England had it all as good as won. Partnerships blossomed, bowlers were taken for huge overs, New Zealand were unusually ragged.
The selection of Tickner, though, brought into the side at the expense of Mitchell, proved a masterstroke. With an array of cutters and a natural length that perfectly suited a slow surface, he tied England down, ending Tom Banton's debut, before picking up the key wicket of Vince with the final ball of his spell.
If Tom Curran had hauled England back into contention with a fine over at the death of New Zealand's innings, Lockie Ferguson did the same. He dismissed Sam Curran and Lewis Gregory to all but seal victory for the home side.
Short, sweet, exciting. Ultimately, we were left wanting more. It only took three deliveries to be convinced that Banton does, indeed, belong on the biggest stage.
He check drove Tim Southee on the up through extra cover almost without any discernible effort. It drew a purr from a commentary box that, like all those watching, had been waiting for this moment since the squad was revealed last month.
It is, of course, important not to place any excess pressure on a precocious 20-year-old. Yet, the English summer felt like the precursor to this for Banton, a young man whose entire appearance feels like that of an international cricketer.
Having displayed his sense of touch against Southee, he answered any questions of how he would fare against the quicker Ferguson almost immediately; he flicked him onto the grassy legside bank for six.
When he fell – attempting to ramp the impressive Blair Tickner, the feeling was two-fold – both a disappointment that it had come to an end, but also a sense of satisfaction that it looked as though he belonged. And ultimately, given the leap from the domestic arena to the global stage, it was no foregone conclusion.
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