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8th over: England 31-4 (Bethell 7, Buttler 0) An immaculate maiden from Foulkes.
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7th over: England 31-4 (Bethell 7, Buttler 0) Bethell picks up four thanks to Ravindra accidentally throwing the ball over the boundary as he fields. Brook falls to actually one of his least aggressive shots, and then Duffy greets Buttler with a beauty of an away swinger.
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WICKET! Brook c Bracewell b Duffy 6 (England 31-4)
And another! Brook props forward and slots the cheese straight to the waiting fox at second slip.
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6th over: England 26-3 (Brook 6, Bethell 2) England are helped by a couple of wides from Foulkes, Bethell got a gorgeous ball first delivery that straightens, but Brook edges four later in the over.
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5th over: England 19-3 (Brook 2, Bethell 1) This is the first I’ve seen of this series and it’s a dog’s breakfast so far. Straight in, food everywhere, and a right mess all over the kitchen floor.
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WICKET! Duckett c Ravindar b Duffy 8 (England 17-3)
Um. Duckett pulls/hacks, top edges and Ravindra takes a running catch at mid-on. Not pretty.
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4th over: England 17-2 (Duckett 8, Brook 2) Another low score for Root in what has been a series to forget. Brook attacks his first ball as a man trying to hack out of a burning barn and nearly loses his stumps. Picks up a more sensible two later in the over.
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WICKET! Root lbw Foukes 2 (England 15-2)
A corking inswinger hones in on Root’s pads. Root stuck in the crease has no answer.
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3rd over: England 9-1 (Duckett 8, Root 2) Five dots and a huge six flayed by Duckett over deep square leg off Duffy.
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2nd over: England 9-1 (Duckett 2, Root 2) A very good over by Foulkes and his long-legged run-up. Smith cracked four from his first ball, but was nearly bowled by his third which licked in and just over the stumps. Lost his wicket next ball. .
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WICKET! Smith c b Foulkes (England 7-0)
New Zealand are very confident that they will overturn the not-out decision on the field… and so they should be. Paul Reiffel is the TV umpire and soon finds the guilty spike. A gung-ho slap Smith’s downfall.
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1st over: England 3-0 (Smith 1, Duckett 2) England off the mark with a streaky outside edge as Smith throws bat at ball. A decent first over from Duffy. I reach into the leftover Halloween chocolate and pull out some Love Hearts. DREAM BIG is the instruction.
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A moment’s silence for young Ben Austin, who died after being hit in the nets while practising in Melbourne.
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Grant Elliot has the microphone, and very suave he looks too in his brown Chelsea boots and green cords. Apparently 296 is the average score for a winning team here. But are England listening?
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Aha! A message drops from the Guardian’s Simon Burnton, fresh from a date scone.
“Morning/afternoon/whatever Tanya. So, we’ve reached the end. The end of the tour – or at least this leg of it – and of England’s white-ball 2025. It’s been a rather ignominious end, for all that Harry Brook’s side “won” the “T20 series” that preceded these three ODIs.
“And the curtain comes down in Wellington’s Sky Stadium, which is expected to be less than a quarter full for the game. England trained yesterday at the Basin Reserve, the lovely bespoke cricket ground across town and perhaps the world’s finest roundabout, but for contractual reasons the match itself has to be played in a giant, echoing, sparsely-populated bowl and this is a bad thing.
“Beyond that, I have learned that Wellingtonians are extremely committed to celebrating Halloween in fully costumed and completely intoxicated style, and that date scones are the finest of all scones, with only cheese even close, and I will never understand why Britons insist on putting raisins in theirs.”
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Updated at 20.56 EDT
It’s a drop-in pitch and Conway reckons it might do a bit early after the weather they’ve had the last few weeks. Just going to grab a quick cup of tea, back in five.
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Though this is a dead game, it could still give England valuable points as they scramble to automatically qualify for the 2027 World Cup. Simon has the details:
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New Zealand XI
New Zealand XI: Devon Conway, Rachin Ravindra, Will Young, Daryl Mitchell, Tom Latham (wk), Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (capt), Nathan Smith, Zak Foulkes, Blair Tickner, Jacob Duffy.
Conway for Williamson at the top of the order.
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England XI
Unchanged.
England XI: Jamie Smith, Ben Duckertt, Joe Root, Jacob Bethell, Harry Brook (capt), Jos Buttler (wk), Sam Curran, Jamie Overton, Brydon Carse, Jofra Archer, Adil Rashid
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New Zealand win the toss and will bowl
There’s a very cute little boy who hands the coin over to Mitchell Santner, who duly wins the toss. “It looks like a good wicket” Santner says, “a bit of grass on it.” One change – Devon Conway replaces Kane Williamson who has a twinge in the groin.
Brook says he’d like to win a toss at some point. “We’ll go out today, play with freedom, try and have fun. We haven’t quite got the runs but we’ll try and have some presence with our batting.”
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Updated at 20.39 EDT
Preamble
Good early morning! As damp skeletons skulk back home, time for England to dust themselves down for this third and final ODI in Wellington.
It is a dead game, the series already New Zealand’s. But Harry Brook will want to see lesser-spotted, runs, and lots of them. Play starts at 1am, do join us to see if England can raise their one-day game from the dead.
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