New Zealand defeat England by 3 wickets
New Zealand defeated England by 3 wickets in the 1st ODI at Hamilton. Ross Taylor scored a brilliant 113 run-knock to take New Zealand within reach of the 285 run-target that England had set for the hosts. Interestingly, Ben Stokes made his first appearance in this match since the 'ugly' brawl incident in Bristol in September 2017. Here's our match report.
Root and Buttler star for England
New Zealand won the toss and opted to take the field first. The hosts got off to a fantastic start leaving England reeling at 14/1 after 6 overs. However, Roy and Root rebuilt the innings for England. Jos Buttler's quick fire 79 off 65 balls propelled the Three Lions to 284/ 8.
Taylor's ton and Santner cameo win New Zealand the game
New Zealand faltered in the chase and lost 3 early wickets before Taylor and Latham steadied the ship. Taylor scored a brilliant ton. England almost won the game after Stokes got the better of Latham and Grandhomme but a cameo from Santner took the game away from them. Santner scored 45 off 27 to take New Zealand to their 9th successive win in ODIs.
Taylor joins the list of elite batsmen
Ross Taylor scored his 18th ODI ton from just 188 innings. He is now 6th fastest batsman to slam 18 ODI hundreds, surpassing Sachin Tendulkar who needed 191 innings.
