England v New Zealand 1st ODI: England beaten comfortably by New Zealand
The hosts could only set a target of 227
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Your support makes all the difference.New Zealand cruised to victory against England in the first ODI of their three match series.
The Black Caps won by 5 wickets with 19 balls to spare having restricted England to just 227 from their 50 overs.
Things were looking very different after the first over of their innings however as James Anderson picked up the wickets of both debutant Luke Ronchi and Kane Williamson to give England the perfect start.
However New Zealand fought back through Martin Guptill and Ross Taylor, who both moved to half centuries in putting on a hundred partnership, as New Zealand moved to 121.
Eventually Anderson got one to move back a little to Taylor and he got an inside edge to Jos Buttler behind the stumps to give England a glimmer of hope.
The loss of wicket did little to derail New Zealand’s chase however and Grant Elliott, the new man in, made 27 in a stand of 47 with Guptill before being bowled by Graeme Swann.
New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum looked out of form and made a very scratchy innings of five before being dismissed by Jade Dernbach, but by then the damage had been done.
Martin Guptill moved to 99 with four overs remaining and just five runs to win and he was nearly denied his century when a Tim Bresnan delivery went for four byes to tie the scores.
However two balls later he pulled the Yorkshire fast bowler to the square leg boundary to bring up his hundred and seal an easy win for New Zealand.
Speaking after the game England's captain Alastair Cook admitted his side had not made enough runs.
“I didn’t think we were too far off today but it is very hard when you’re just looking to bat out the overs. It was a nothing score.”
“The art of one-day cricket is finding the balance between risk and reward,” said Cook, speaking at the post-match press conference. “I don’t think out shot options were the bad options, it was just the execution of them.
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