England whitewashed by New Zealand after another top-order batting collapse

A third top-order batting collapse in as many games cost England a chance of a consolation victory in Wellington after New Zealand won a low-scoring thriller by two wickets. 

For the majority of the contest, it had been the same old story as the rest of the series. England’s top-order had fallen in a heap, Jamie Overton had restored some respectability with the bat, but it was to be too few and New Zealand would reel it in comfortably.

With the Kiwis 78 for none, chasing 223 to win, that seemed to be the case again. But a combination of two remarkable pieces of fortune, and even better bowling saw England flip the script and almost pull off a remarkable victory.

Twice at key intervals, England picked up a wicket through a batsman being run-out at the non-striker’s end while backing up. First, to open their account when Devon Conway was caught short of his ground after a Rachin Ravindra drive down the pitch deflected off Overton and onto the stumps. And later, with the Black Caps 113 for three, when Tom Latham suffered the same fate after Daryl Mitchell’s powerful drive clipped Brydon Carse on the way through to the stumps.

England made the most of their luck, with Overton and Sam Curran combining to take two wickets apiece. The first pair getting England back in the game as Ravindra and Will Young fell in consecutive overs to reduce New Zealand to 92 for three, before they combined in quick succession again to put England on the brink of what looked to be an unlikely victory when Overton clean bowled Nathan Smith with a beauty before Curran got Mitchell to edge behind leaving the Black Caps eight down and still 30 runs short.

The tourists would have been good value for their win had it arrived, but Kiwi tailenders Zak Foulkes and Blair Tickner combined to knock off the runs calmly and complete a three-nil clean sweep and continue New Zealand’s remarkable home record in ODIs. They have won 25 of their last 27 home matches. By contrast, this was England’s 12th defeat in their last 16 one-day internationals and sees them finish 2025 without a win away from home where their record reads played nine, lost nine.

“In one day cricket we just haven’t been able to nail down our tempo,” head coach Brendon McCullum said after play. “Whether we stick or twist at certain times. I like to separate it. I think in T20 cricket we’re going really well and in Test cricket we have a pretty decent idea of where we’re at, albeit we have a huge challenge ahead of us. One-day cricket is clearly the area we need to improve.”

England batsmen fail again

It wasn’t meant to be like this. In theory, an off-broadway white-ball trip to New Zealand was designed to provide a gentle landing for England ahead of a high-profile, intense Ashes series.

Instead, an historically poor performance with the bat has put England’s top six under the microscope weeks before the Perth Test has even begun. Across the three matches this series, the top four contributed just 84 runs. The lowest combined tally in the history of one-day international cricket.

For the third match in succession, Harry Brook lost the toss as England were put into bat. But it wasn’t to be third-time lucky, as all of Jamie Smith, Joe Root, Ben Duckett and Harry Brook fell within the first seven overs. Jacob Bethell, batting at No 5, was dismissed the first ball after the end of the powerplay as England fell to 44 for five.

For all the talk of a white-ball tour being poor preparation ahead of an Ashes, this series presented England’s batsmen with an opportunity to face a high-quality seam attack on the type of lively wickets that Australia are expected to produce.

In that regard, England failed dramatically. Ben Duckett, who has been a picture of consistency since his return to the team in 2022, made single-figure scores in all three games. While Jamie Smith, Joe Root and Jacob Bethell only made it to 20 between them once.

While Root has enough credit in the bank for any idea of pre-Ashes jitters to be dissuaded, and Smith playing a different role in the white-ball team than he does in the Test, the hope will be for those two players it merely represents a blip and they will be back to normal come Perth.

“They’ll be better for the run,” said McCullum in defence of his players. “They’ve marked centre a few times and gone through the process and I’m sure they’ll be better for it. With the prep that we’ve had with the other Test guys who’ve been here for a while too, we’ll have no excuses come Australia.”

But scores of 2, 18 and 11 represent a major missed opportunity for Jacob Bethell, who with Ollie Pope absent from the white-ball squads had a major opportunity to press his case to bat at No.3 in Australia. It is far from beyond England to make a left-field selection, but since Bethell’s century against South Africa in September he has averaged 15 in nine innings in an England shirt. If his inclusion at Perth felt unlikely before, it feels even further away now.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]