England captain Stuart Broad blamed himself twice over for his team's 55-run defeat against New Zealand
Broad’s opposite number Brendon McCullum was the obvious match-winner, as the hosts levelled the Twenty20 series with one to play, hitting 74 from just 38 balls in New Zealand’s 192 for six.
There were other significant performances in the home win as Mitchell McClenaghan took two important early wickets to undermine England’s attempt at their highest-ever run chase in this format.
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New Zealand’s Brendon McCullum plays a shot en route his 74 against England in Hamilton yesterday. Pic/Getty images
Ian Butler marked his first Twenty20 international in more than two years with figures of two for nine and then James Franklin grabbed four for 15 late on. Jos Buttler (54) continued his fine form with a half-century from only 28 balls for England, but could only narrow the margin of defeat.
Broad followed his career-best four for 24 in Saturday’s opening win in Auckland with his worst of none for 53 here.
He conceded 22 runs, largely to McCullum, in his final over and acknowledged afterwards that his own bowling was not up to scratch today —and that he regretted his decision to put New Zealand in.
Stuart Broad
“We got certain parts of the game wrong tonight, and in such a short format you can’t afford to do that.
England ended up 137 all out, despite Buttler’s best efforts, after stumbling to nine for two and then 80 for seven.
“We needed to keep wickets intact,” said the captain. But we didn’t do that — and as soon as we lost three in the first six overs, we were struggling.”
McCullum admitted he too would have put the opposition in, had he won the toss.
But Broad added: “I made the wrong decision at the toss to bowl. The dew did change the wicket quite a bit, and the ball swung.
“The guys said it came off the wicket a bit two-paced as well. New Zealand just bowled length, and that’s all they had to do.”
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