New Zealand floors hapless England

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New Zealand established an emphatic win over England in their third match of the tournament as they beat them by 8 wickets at Wellington. It was a miserable day for English cricket as nothing went right for them, neither while batting or with the ball in hand.

Batting first England managed to set up a target of just 124 runs for the Kiwis as they simply had no clue whatsoever against the likes of Tim Southee, Trent Boult and Adam Milne’s swing bowling. Tim Southee had just the perfect day on the field as everything just fell in place for him. He finished with figures of 9-1-33-7, which is the best performance by a Kiwi in the world cups. England who once was at 104/3 just lost their way once Daniel Vettori got the wicket of Eoin Morgan. After the departure of Morgan it was just a matter of time before the English lower middle order and the tail fell like nine pins. Joe Root seemed to be the only man who could bat but he just ran out of partners and in the end got out while trying to get as many runs as possible on the board.

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Coming out to chase 124, Brendon McCullum just ran riot against the English bowlers as he slammed the fastest fifty in world cup history in 18 balls. The hundred came up for the kiwis in the 40^th delivery of the innings as New Zealand chased down the target in just 13 overs. It could have been much earlier had McCullum stayed till the end. McCullum got out for 77 off 25 balls which had 7 sixes and 8 boundaries in it. The slightest of chances that England had was hit out of the park by McCullum’s blistering innings. In the end it was a clinical performance from the Kiwis who backed up their excellent bowling with some scintillating batting performance and it was led by none other than the captain himself.

England on the other hand is in real trouble having lost both their opening matches. They haven’t just lost it; they have been completely outplayed by their opponents in the two games that they have played so far in the tournament. It’s high time that they regroup themselves and prevent from getting embarrassed very early in the tournament.

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About Argha Ghosh

An ardent follower of sports and die-hard Manchester United fan, Argha's ultimate dream is to watch a Manchester derby from the Stretford End at the Old Trafford.