Santner and Neesham star as New Zealand beat sloppy England

New Zealand 176 for 8 (Neesham 42, Guptill 41, Jordan 3-23) beat England 155 (Malan 39, Santner 3-25) by 21 runs

Wellington: New Zealand beat England by 21 runs to level the Twenty20 series at 1-1 at Westpac Stadium, Wellington on Sunday.

Chasing 177 for victory, England slipped to 3-2 after eight balls before being bowled out for 155 despite Chris Jordan's 19-ball 36 late on.

The returning Jimmy Neesham made 42 and Martin Guptill 41 in New Zealand's 176-8, with Chris Jordan taking 3-23 and Sam Curran 2-22.

The third game of the five-match series is in Nelson at 01:00 GMT on Tuesday.

England, who have rested several first-choice players, restricted the Black Caps to what felt like a below-par total, despite dropping five catches, after winning the toss.

Although the pitch had more pace than the one in the series opener in Christchurch and the square boundaries were short, it never felt like England were in control of the chase despite flurries from captain Eoin Morgan, Dawid Malan and Jordan.

New Zealand spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi were impressive, taking a combined 5-62 from eight overs.

Scores	Upcoming	Results
South Africa vs Pakistan - 3rd ODI 4th Test - Australia v India - December 26-30, 23:30 GMT 1st Test - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan - December 26-30, 07:30 GMT 3rd ODI - Zimbabwe v Afghanistan at Harare Afghanistan won by 8 wickets (with 139 balls remaining) 3rd T20I - West Indies v Bangladesh at St Vincent Bangladesh won by 80 runs

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