Key events
4th over: New Zealand 20-2 (Seifert 5, Phillips 9) A classy shot from Glenn Phillips, who times Atkinson square on the off side for four. He top-scored for New Zealand on Wednesday and has started well here, taking a few low-risk singles and then punishing Atkinson when he erred slightly in length.
3rd over: New Zealand 13-2 (Seifert 4, Phillips 3) I told you 140 might be a good score.
WICKET! New Zealand 8-2 (Allen c Jacks b Curran 3)
New Zealand haven’t learned from the England innings. Allen tries to smear a Curran slower ball towards the Northern Quarter but mistimes it miserably to mid-on, where Jacks takes a good catch over his shoulder.
2nd over: New Zealand 8-1 (Allen 3, Seifert 2) Atkinson’s second ball was timed at 92mph and his fifth beat the new batter Tim Seifert for pace. He bowls wicket-to-wicket and has a very fast arm, so you can see why people have compared him, in style if not quite substance, to Jofra Archer.
WICKET! New Zealand 6-1 (Conway c Livingstone b Atkinson 2)
That’ll do! Gus Atkinson strikes with his fourth ball in international cricket when Devon Conway lifts him high to deep backward square leg. Atkinson smiles a little shyly and claps his hands; that’s a helluva start to his England career.
1st over: New Zealand 3-0 (Allen 2, Conway 0) The lesson of the England innings is that this isn’t the easiest pitch on which to start, and even Finn Allen can’t get hold of Sam Curran in the first over. It’s a terrific start from Curran, full of variety; just two runs off the bat.
And now it’s time for Gus Atkinson.
Harry Brook speaks to Sky Sports
It’s generally tough to chase here. It’s a decent pitch tonight so hopefully we can get a couple of wickets early.
[Come on, how you do it?] To be honest I just try to play the ball on instinct as much as possible. Watch the ball and react. [What was either to face, pace or spin?] Probably pace, when you get used to it.
Jonny was on for a hundred and (chuckles) he was in the mood tonight. Unfortunately he didn’t get it but it was an outstanding knock.
[What’s your advice to Gus Atkinson?] Enjoy it, bowl quick and try and hit a few on the head.
And you thought life was complicated.
20th over: England 198-4 (Bairstow 86, Buttler 13) Ferguson starts the last over excellently, deceiving Buttler on a couple of occasions. But the penultimate delivery is swung miles over wide long-on for six, and a wide takes England to 197. Another slower ball beats Buttler to end the innings, so England don’t quite reach 200.
It was a decent finish for New Zealand, with only 18 runs coming from the last 15 deliveries. But England had already reached an imposing total thanks to a spectacular partnership of 131 in 10.4 overs between Jonny Bairstow and Harry Brook. New Zealand need 199 to win.
19th over: England 185-4 (Bairstow 86, Buttler 3) Adam Milne, the pick of the New Zealand attack by a distance, ends with an excellent over. All six deliveries are either missed or mistimed, and England can only manage four singles. Milne ends with 4-0-23-0.
18th over: England 181-4 (Bairstow 84, Buttler 1) Despite taking some vicious tap, Sodhi ends with okay figures of 4-0-44-2.
So what’s a par score then? 130? 140? That’s the daft thing – despite all the entertainment, England know New Zealand have the muscle to chase anything if conditions stay like this.
WICKET! England 180-4 (Moeen Ali c Milne b Sodhi 6)
Moeen Ali slog-sweeps his first ball for six, because that’s what modern cricketers do. He tries again next ball and picks out Adam Milne, who almost drops a simple catch but grabs it at the second attempt.
I remember when a white-ball cameo from an England batter was 34 from 37 balls. These days it’s 6 off 2.
WICKET! England 174-3 (Brook c Allen b Sodhi 67)
Brook holes out to long on to end another mini masterpiece: 67 from 36 balls with five fours and five sixes. He is an astonishing talent who is going to provide untold joy and entertainment in the next decade.
Since his last T20/Hundred dismissal, Harry Brook has scored 211 runs off 103 balls.
17th over: England 170-2 (Bairstow 84, Brook 63) Well, how else would you reach a half-century? Southee drops short and is smashed straight back over his head for six by Brook. That brings up a 31-ball fifty. I’m running out of superlatives to describe Harry Brook, even though I haven’t actually been using superlatives.
Southee’s having a rough day as captain, an even rougher one as a bowler. Brook pulls a full toss for four then wastes a slower ball into the crowd. Southee ends with 4-0-48-1.
16th over: England 153-2 (Bairstow 84, Brook 46) Ferguson follows Brook, who is still good enough to glide the ball past short third man for four. As well as the timing, the power, the confidence and everything else, his placement is phenomenal.
That boundary brings up the hundred partnership in about five minutes. And it was a no-ball, which means a free hit – though Brook can only cloth a pull for two. No matter: he meets the next delivery with a devastating, fast-handed cover drive for four more.
It’s been an innings of two halves: 48 for two in the first eight overs, 105 for none in the next eight. This is England?
15th over: England 140-2 (Bairstow 83, Brook 36) It feels a long time ago that Adam Milne was beating Bairstow with inswinger after inswinger; it was about an hour. He returns and restores a bit of order with a canny over – no boundaries, though England still pilfer eight runs. They’ve got 140, they might as well declare.
“I have one solution to the selectorial conundrum you pose,” says Brian Withington. “You pick the squad one at a time and don’t change your mind about your first pick, which must be Harry Brook. Everybody else is discardable, including Roy and Malan. If Buttler really wants to keep them and bring in Ben Stokes then he needs to step down and ask Stokes to captain as well. We won’t miss his keeping.”
14th over: England 132-2 (Bairstow 79, Brook 32) Bairstow scored 26 from his first 28 balls; since then he’s made 45 from 18 51 from 19, including another slog-sweep for six off Sodhi’s first ball.
When Bairstow pulls fractionally short of deep square-leg, Brook reverse-sweeps for a one-bounce for four. Old Trafford is being royally entertained by two of Yorkshire’s finest. The last six overs have gone for 84.
13th over: England 118-2 (Bairstow 71, Brook 26) Bairstow is going into overdrive, as he did against Australia on this ground during the Ashes. He launches Southee’s first three balls for 16: six over square leg, four to midwicket, majestic six down the ground.
Brook continues the carnage by picking a wide slower ball and pinging it into the crowd at cow corner. Six more, and that’s 23 from the over. So much for 140 being a competitive score!
T20 is a different game when #HarryBrook comes in. He makes the boring middle overs more fun than the Powerplay
— Tim de Lisle (@TimdeLisle) September 1, 2023
12th over: England 95-2 (Bairstow 54, Brook 20) Bairstow hoicks Santner’s first ball for four – or maybe six, it’s very hard to tell. The third umpire is taking a while to decide. If it’s six, it will bring up Bairstow’s fifty.
It’s four, so Bairstow backs away to blast the next ball through extra cover for another. That brings up an increasingly emphatic half-century from 40 balls. The value of an in-form Bairstow at the World Cup would be enormous.
Later in the over Brook reverse sweeps for two despite being totally duped by Santner, and it would have been four but for a fine stop from Chapman. Santner ends a classy spell with harsh figures of 4-0-36-1.
11th over: England 81-2 (Bairstow 44, Brook 17) England are flying now. Bairstow pulls Ferguson’s first ball round the corner for four, which makes it 30 from the last 12 deliveries. Ferguson pulls things back really well thereafter, conceding only one off the last five balls and beating Brook to end the over. It’s topsy-turvy stuff.
10th over: England 76-2 (Bairstow 39, Brook 17) Erm, Harry Brook might well be a genius. He has just driven Sodhi for successive inside-out sixes, both shots of outrageous skill, intent and certainty. Sod it, I can’t resist a statgasm. Since England announced their World Cup squad, Brook has scored 211 runs from 111 balls with an average of 105.5 and a strike-rate of 190.
I still don’t know how you get him in the World Cup squad, never mind the team, but I wish they could.
9th over: England 60-2 (Bairstow 37, Brook 4) Bairstow crashes Santner through extra cover for four, then monsters a slogsweep into the crowd. He mistimed a couple of shots, duped by Santner’s mischievous changes of pace, but those boundaries make it England’s best over in a while.
8th over: England 48-2 (Bairstow 26, Brook 3) Ish Sodhi, playing his 100th T20 international, comes on. Never mind 140; a score of 120 might be enough if dew isn’t a factor when England bowl. Brook survives an LBW appeal – missing leg – and then drives one to long-on. That’s the first of four singles in the over. England are 9/2 in the last three overs.
7th over: England 44-2 (Bairstow 24, Brook 1) I was going to introduce Harry Brook with a statgasm or two, but after Dawid Malan’s innings I think I’ll refrain. He gets off the mark with a push down the ground for a single. Batting looks pretty awkward out there.
WICKET! England 43-2 (Malan b Santner 0)
Malan goes for 0 from 4 balls, and he missed the lot of them. Santner – who’d already had a stumping review against Bairstow earlier in the over – slowed it down to beat Malan’s attempted slap on the inside and hit the top of middle stump.
6th over: England 40-1 (Bairstow 21, Malan 0) Dawid Malan has the highest T20 average in England men’s history (min: 10 innings). More improtantly, his average of 50.45 when England win is second only to Kevin Peter Pietersen.
As I research and type the above, Malan is beaten outside off stump by each of his first three deliveries from Southee. Hard to be sure but the early impressions are that 140 would be a competitive score.
WICKET! England 40-1 (Jacks c Chapman b Southee 19)
At one end or another, a wicket was coming. Jacks clunks a pull to mid-on to end a scruffy if useful innings of 19 from 11 balls, and here comes Dawid Malan.
5th over: England 39-0 (Bairstow 20, Jacks 19) Milne off, Ferguson on. Jacks smears him between mid-on and midwicket for four, then inside-edges a similar shot just wide of leg stump for four more.
England aren’t middling too many, yet they are making good progress. Jacks ends what was a pretty good over from Ferguson by clouting six over midwicket. It went very high but kept travelling until it plopped into the crowd. Fifteen from the over, a minor travesty.
4th over: England 24-0 (Bairstow 19, Jacks 5) The left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner is on very early, a nod to the dry Old Trafford pitch. There’s a bit of spin, nothing too dramatic, and Bairstow punishes a short ball with a pull for four. He’s monopolising the strike, having faced 19 of the 24 deliveries so far.
3rd over: England 18-0 (Bairstow 14, Jacks 4) A fractionally short delivery from Milne is savaged over midwicket for four by Bairstow. Milne continues to trouble him with the inducker, even if the movement isn’t as extravagant as it was in the first over.
This is a really important set of games for Bairstow, whose already enormous importance to England’s 50-over team has increased given the relative struggles of Jason Roy since the last World Cup.
2nd over: England 12-0 (Bairstow 8, Jacks 4) Southee doesn’t get as much swing as Milne, which is a bit of surprise, and Bairstow thumps him back over his head for four. A top-edged pull lands safely for a couple, and then Bairstow has to protect his stumps after knocking the ball into the ground.
“Can we dream about Harry Brook sneaking into the World Cup squad,” says Brendan Large. “Much as I appreciate the whole ‘hie time will come’ comments, he is clearly ready now and could make the difference in a knock-out game that (for example) Livingstone might struggle to do in India with the ball moving sideways off the track.”
I’d argue Livingstone is a red herring. They need six bowlers in the team and have decided, reasonably I think, that a reserve opener is more likely to be needed than a reserve middle-order batter, so that means there is only room for two of Brook, Stokes and Buttler. The alternative argument is that Brook could open but that is, well a different argument, and one we probably don’t have time for during a T20. A nice boring pre-Bazball Test, perhaps. That said, I do think history will have an itchy chin when it considers Harry Brook’s omission from the 2023 World Cup.
1st over: England 5-0 (Bairstow 1, Jacks 4) Adam Milne’s first ball is a big inswinger which widens the eyes of Jonny Bairstow. His second cuts Bairstow in half and is superbly stopped down the leg side by Seifert. Hello, this could be interesting.
It’s officially interesting: New Zealand have reviewed for LBW against Bairstow! He played around another huge inswinger, except this one was slightly fuller and hit him on the back pad. Alex Wharf said not out, but this looks close. Replays show it would have missed leg stump.
Bairstow decides to get round the other end asap, diving desperately after playing tip and run to mid-on.
Will Jacks makes a much more confident start to his innings, crunching a full inswinger through the covers for four. Milne pulls his length back and bets Jacks on the inside. That was such a menacing first over.
Here come the players. Our man Athers says there is a slightly subcontinental feel to the pitch, hence England’s decision to bat first. They have four spinners, five if you include Dawid Malan.
“Superb stuff from Michael Atherton explaining the new tech in county cricket that feeds data to selectors and helped identify Gus Atkinson as a genuine quick – though it was pretty obvious at the Oval,” writes Gary Naylor. “That Atherton could do all that without hesitation or notes walking round the outfield shows a master broadcaster at work – best ever for me despite a well stocked cricket pantheon.”
He’d be right up there even if he wasn’t also working as the cricket correspondent of the Times most days. Imagine the concentration and ability you need to do that! Also has a lovely, dry sense of humour and an infectious cackle, and never stops looking forward. He’s pretty much flawless, isn’t he?
It’s the first email of the evening! Oh.
“Afternoon Rob,” writes Simon McMahon. “I swear I’ve just seen Harry Maguire and Scott McTominay heading into Wetherspoons in Dundee, where Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin is rumoured to be waiting to thrash out a deal to bring them to Tannadice on a season long loan. Dundee is the sunniest city in Scotland so, with the rain in Manchester never far away, it makes perfect sense, don’t you think?”
A bit of pre-match reading
Team news
Gus Atkinson was presented with his cap by his Surrey teammate Sam Curran, which might be the first time an England debutant has received his cap from somebody younger than him. His inclusion, in place of Luke Wood, is the only change from the first match. New Zealand are unchanged.
England Bairstow, Jacks, Malan, Brook, Buttler (c/wk), Ali, Livingstone, Curran, Rashid, Carse, Atkinson.
New Zealand Conway, Allen, Seifert (wk), Phillips, Chapman, Mitchell, Santner, Milne, Sodhi, Southee (c), Ferguson.
England win the toss and bat
Jos Buttler said he wasn’t 100 per cent sure whether to bat or bowl. Gus Atkinson (25, 95mph) makes his England debut.
Preamble
The weather forecast for Manchester is pretty good this weekend. Cloudy but dry tonight; cloudy changing to sunny intervals by late morning tomorrow; sunny intervals changing to cloudy by late morning on Sunday. It’s summer, so we play cricket, right? Would that it were so simple.
Six weeks ago, at the height of the English summer, Old Trafford became a paddling pool. It denied everyone the most exciting end to a Test series in the history of forever, and some of us aren’t quite over it.
Life moves on, red balls turn to white, biblical downpours turn to sunny intervals changing to cloudy by late morning, and cricket is played in Manchester. Which is a longwinded way of saying: welcome to live coverage of the second T20 international between England and New Zealand at Old Trafford.
England won handsomely at Chester-le-Street on Wednesday, when Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Dawid Malan and Luke Wood (alphabetical order, Dawid, nothing more than that) all starred. We know this is a slightly odd series: it has an even number of matches (please, not another 2-2 draw), it comes barely a month before the start of a 50-over World Cup and a number of the players won’t be off to that tournament in India. It’s not quite the orgy of context and meaning that future tour planners fantasise about.
Even so, it has plenty going for it. White-ball form is pretty transferrable, so boundaries and wickets are credit in the bank for those going to the World Cup; we might see Gus Atkinson make his England debut; we’ll almost certainly see Harry Brook bat. And I hope we can all agree that, truly, there are worse ways to spend a Friday night.
The match begins at 6pm, with the toss at 5.30pm.
