Christchurch T-20: James Vince’s half-century, England beat Kiwis by 7 wickets

Thanks to James Vince’s first T20 half-century, England performed brilliantly and defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the first match.

Thanks to James Vince’s first T20 half-century, England performed brilliantly and defeated New Zealand by seven wickets in the first match. With this victory, England took a 1-0 lead in the five-match T20 series.

Batting first after losing the toss, the hosts scored 153 runs for five wickets in 20 overs. England achieved the target by losing just three wickets in 18.3 overs. Vince was adjudged ‘Man of the Match’ for his performance.

Earlier, New Zealand had a very poor start and opener Martin Guptill was dismissed by just two runs. Colin Munro also failed to perform as expected and returned to the pavilion after scoring 21 runs.

Tim Shiffert scored 32 runs while handling the host team innings. After this, veteran Ross Taylor played a quick knock of 44 runs. He was supported by Darryl Mitchell who played an unbeaten 30-run innings to bring the team’s score to 153 runs. Chris Jordan took the most 2 wickets from the visiting team. Sam Curren, Adil Rashid, and Patrick Brown took one wicket each.

England had a good start chasing the target. The guest team’s first wicket fell as David Malan (11) on a total of 37. On the score of 68, James Vince took the front after Johnny Bairstow (35 runs) returned to the pavilion.

James Vince scored 59 runs with the help of seven fours and two sixes in 38 balls to lead the team to victory. Eoin Morgan scored 34 not out and Sam Billings scored 14 not out to lead the team to victory.