A mistimed pull from Smith and Williamson holds onto a swirling catch! England in a spot of early bother once again.<\/p>\n
Share<\/a><\/p>\n 5th over: England 26-1 (Smith 13, Root 12) Tight lines from Duffy. Just a single to Root behind square off the over.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 4th over: England 25-1 (Smith 13, Root 11) Jamie Smith clatters a pull shot to the midwicket fence for four and then picks up a single in the same region. Root continues his busy start with a single past point and Jamie Smith then plays a nonchalant flick for SIX onto the grass bank on the leg side.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 3rd over: England 13-1 (Smith 2, Root 10) Joe Root is the new batter. He whips Duffy off his pads for two and then times the next one even better for four. Root then pings a drive through cover for four more! Ten runs and the wicket of Duckett off the over.<\/p>\n Share<\/a>WICKET! Ben Duckett c \u2020Latham b Duffy 1 (England 3-1)<\/p>\n Gone! Lovely ball from Duffy, Duckett doesn\u2019t do much wrong but gets a feather through to the keeper. Here we go again?<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 2nd over: England 3-0 (Smith 2, Duckett 1) Zakary Foulkes and his fast arm start the next over to Duckett. Ripper! Foulkes is getting some late movement and he beats Duckett outside off stump before inducing a leading edge that luckily lands safe for the pint sized opener. Duckett used his feet and glides a single to deep point to open the scoring. Smith drives compactly for two next ball but misses out on a pull off the last.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n 1st over: England 0-0 (Smith 0, Duckett 0) Jamie Smith defends the first ball of the match\u2026 which is a darn sight better than how it went last time when Matt Henry splattered his stumps. He\u2019ll be a big miss today for New Zealand. Duffy is full and there\u2019s a hint of swing, five dots as he keeps Smith honest. Smith drives the last ball but can\u2019t beat the ring. A maiden over to start.<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n The New Zealand players huddle on the boundary edge, the sun is out now in Hamilton. The forecast is actually pretty good, maybe the odd scattered shower. Duckett and Smith head out to the middle. Jacob Duffy will start with the new ball. Let\u2019s play!<\/p>\n TEAMS:<\/p>\n England 1 Jamie Smith, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Joe Root, 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Harry Brook (c), 6 Jos Buttler (wk), 7 Sam Curran, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Brydon Carse, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Jofra Archer<\/p>\n New Zealand 1 Will Young, 2 Rachin Ravindra, 3 Kane Williamson, 4 Daryl Mitchell, 5 Tom Latham (wk), 6 Michael Bracewell, 7 Mitchell Santner (c), 8 Nathan Smith, 9 Zakary Foulkes, 10 Blair Tickner, 11 Jacob Duffy<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n Play will start in ten minutes!<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact Matt Henry has a calf strain.\u201d says Simon. \u201cHis thighs are fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Which makes my mind immediately go to this. \u2018The Edge is fine.\u2019<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Share<\/a>New Zealand win the toss and choose to bowl first<\/p>\n No official word yet but the rain seems to have stopped and there\u2019s plenty of blue sky about. In fact we go live to the toss right now\u2026<\/p>\n Mitch Santner wins it and chooses to bowl first. He\u2019ll be hoping for a rinse and repeat job on England\u2019s top order.<\/p>\n Harry Brook confirms he would have bowled first and also that Jofra Archer is going to play!<\/p>\n Share<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cMore than two years have passed since Blair Tickner last played for New Zealand, two years in which his life was thrown into chaos, his career into doubt, his family into crisis. \u201cObviously people haven\u2019t seen me as much, but I feel like I\u2019ve been doing all the right things for the last two years,\u201d he said of his call-up, one game into the ODI series against England. \u201cSo nothing\u2019s really changed. I\u2019m still the same guy.\u201d This is not true. So much has changed, and he is not the same guy.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"James](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761701957_730_James_Wallace.png\")
James Wallace<\/p>\n