England looks to seal series in Dunedin

Dunedin: It went right down to the proverbial wire in the third one-day international of the five-match series between New Zealand and England, with Kane Williamson’s unbeaten century taking the home side to the doorstep of victory before England clung on to go 2-1 ahead.

That came after a Ross Taylor century and a Mitchell Santner blitz had given New Zealand a three-wicket victory in the first game before England bounced back with a stellar bowling effort and half-centuries from Eoin Morgan and Ben Stokes in the second fixture, which they won by six wickets.

England have certainly looked the more complete of the two sides. The only two centuries in the series might have come from New Zealand blades, but Morgan, Stokes, Jos Buttler and Joe Root have all been among the runs, while all of Chris Woakes, Moeen Ali, Adil Rashid and Stokes have been picking up wickets.

Stokes has settled back into the side well after a long time out, and that’s certainly lifted England in a big way – not that they were doing badly without him, beating Australia 4-1 in their ODI series earlier in the year.

For New Zealand, it’s been a matter of individuals coming through more than the team as a whole clicking.

Mitchell Santner has actually been their standout batsman, scoring a match-winning 45*, then 63* and finally 41 in the three matches so far, all from No.8. Their middle order, meanwhile, has looked brittle at times, with Henry Nicholls going through a woeful patch, scoring 0, 1 and 0 in the series.

Taylor missed the last game after picking up a quad injury, but has been cleared for the fourth game, and might replace Nicholls or Mark Chapman in the XI.

The New Zealand bowling has looked fine, though, with Trent Boult and Ish Sodhi the frontmen of the attack.

Teams from

New Zealand: Kane Williamson (c), Todd Astle, Trent Boult, Mark Chapman, Lockie Ferguson, Colin de Grandhomme, Martin Guptill, Matt Henry, Tom Latham (wk), Colin Munro, Henry Nicholls, Mitchell Santner, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee, Ross Taylor.

England: Eoin Morgan (c), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Sam Billings, Jos Buttler (wk), Tom Curran, Alex Hales, Craig Overton, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood.

Pitch and conditions
Unfortunately, there has been rain around Dunedin and the forecast is for a chance of showers in the afternoon.

Stats and trivia
Martin Guptill needs 71 runs to reach 6000 in ODIs.

Match facts
Wednesday 7 March 2018
Start time: 11:00 local (22:00 GMT -1d)