Dawid Malan and Harry Brook both stake World Cup claim as England stroll to victory in first T20

Delighted, it was a really good performance. Our powerplay, after Finn Allen hitting three sixes, to come back and take the wickets was brilliant, and the spinners really put a strangle on. Fantastic start [for Carse] here on his home ground. Thought he bowled with great skill and pace. We’ve given guys opportunity, he’s taken his and Luke Wood as well. [Malan] is a class player. He’s been very consistent at No 3 in T20s and great form in ODIs when he’s got the chance. [Livingstone] bowled brilliantly. Nice to see a guy who can contribute with bat, ball and in the field, they’re gold dust. I thought Moeen bowled brilliantly and we know how good Rashid is. Nice to have them to call on.

Obviously a great start to my T20 career, awesome to play in front of a home crowd and put in a good performance. Tried to keep to my strengths, hit the top of the stumps and it paid off with a crucial wicket. Some skidded through and held up a bit, so I tried to bash a length. I had friends here tonight, I’ve played here for 10 years and to perform was a special feeling.

The way they took the early wickets stalls any momentum. I think we got the pitch wrong. We didn’t assess conditions as well as we usually do. Glenn Phillips, great to see him in form. We have a couple of days to turn it around and go again in Manchester [on Friday].  

In February Harry Brook played the shot of the winter in Mount Maunganui off Tim Southee, driving him down the ground for a straight six. That six over deep square off Southee at the Riverside will take some beating for the rest of this summer. You just shake your head at the decision not to pick Brook in the World Cup squad. It is going to cost them as a long, arduous competition drags on.

As close to a one-sided marmalisation as you could wish to see. Fine contributions from Brydon Carse, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan and Harry Brook, reassuring cameos from Adil Rashid and Will Jacks plus a good comeback from Liam Wood after being hit for three successive sixes in his opening over. 

The closest of close shaves for Harry Brook when he defends with an angled bat off Milne and the ball spits back off the crease and spins back towards the stumps, missing the bail by a hair’s breadth. Victor Kiam would have loved that shot so much he would have bought it? No, you update your cultural references. I’m sticking with mine ...

Brook, keen to get this done now, then smears Milne through extra for four with such elegance it makes you catch your breath when he follows it with a brutal thump down the ground for four more. 

Brook drives through point for a single and Livingstone completes the smash and grab raid with a steepling six, pulled high over midwicket. 

England win by seven wickets with 36 balls to spare.   

Buttler promotes Livingstone and he starts with popping/tucking two off his body fine for two. The next ball is a waist-high full toss from Ferguson that makes Livingstone yelp as he fended it away. Brook swats the free hit, another full toss, away fine for two and gets another go at a free hit because Ferguson overstepped, The second gimme of the over is flicked off his toes behind the square leg umpire for one. 

Livingstone drives for one through cover and Brook makes his ground when coming back for two having flipped a straight one behind square leg. 

Malan c Mitchell b Ferguson 54  Misreads a slow cutter and can’t get hold of his pull properly, spooning it off the toe to mid on. Malan can’t believe he’s fallen for that and drops to his haunches before picking himself up and trudging off for a 42-ball 54.  FOW 116/3

Southee brings himself back on and tries to diddle Brook with a slower ball. Brook is not buying at that price, though, rocks back and wallops it over midwicket for what must be the biggest six of the match. Southee puts the pace back on to keep Brook honest and earns a dot ball off a defensive but Brook sees out the rest of the over with a two and a single off his legs. 

These are very welcome runs for Dawid Malan. He had a grim Hundred, and was dropped by Trent Rockets. He is perhaps the most at threat from Harry Brook if England were to make a change to their World Cup squad. And, with that, Brook launches a pair of sixes... 

Mitchell Santner returns and tries spearing it in to Malan who can’t get enough bat on a sweep and leaves it about five inches from where he met it. Malan drills two down to the point sweeper then, after sharing three singles with Brook, brings up his half-century with a soaring sweep behind square for six. 

Lovely shot from Malan to get up on his toes and clip Ferguson through third man for two with a vertical bat, more a deflection than a hit, a stroke more than a shot. Malan moves on with two more, pulled through midwicket and a single back down to third man when Ferguson gets one to spit up outside off. Malan rides the bounce 

Drinks. 

Brook has had enough of hanging around. He has a place in the World Cup squad to fight for and tears into Sodhi, absolutely leathering a straight drive over mid-off for six and then, when Sodhi serves up the kind of long hop that did for Jacks, Brook swivels and mullers it 10 rows back to the longest boundary with a vicious pull. When the ball comes back it is virtually pear-shaped so has to be replaced.  The problem for Brook and India is that the one place he may be able to usurp is that of his Yorkshire team-mate and current partner Malan, who is also batting well and remains the most underrated of white-ball players despite his stratospheric ICC ranking over the past couple of years. 

Santner slams on the brakes with flight and variation in it, yielding only three singles as Brook misses out on a reverse ramp/paddle but hares a bye instead. 

But then again anyone prepared to take on modern batsmen in this format with their English willow railway sleepers with only their guile and nerve deserve all the luck they get. 

And Ish Sodhi, in his 99th T20i, almost gets Malan too as he slog sweeps a googly for six but no’but just clearing a leaping deep backward square.   

Jacks c Allen b Sodhi 22  Leg-spinners are jammy so and sos. They consistently take wickets with pies and this was a greasy long hop that Jacks tied himself in knots to hit and then panned it straight to square leg. The replay suggests he hit it twice,  first at the top of the blade and then again by the toe.  FOW 62/2

Just a one-over spell for Ferguson as Milne comes back. Malan opens the face to run a single down through point and after they double the punishment of a wide ball by filching an extra single through to the keeper, Malan creams four through cover then drives squarer still for two. 

Southee turns to Santner and the left-arm orthodox spinner starts by beating Malan with a skidder outside off. No turn but it zipped past the edge. 

Malan then tees off, launching four over mid-off, gets away with drive that flies off a thick edge for four more then cuffs the next ball through midwicket’s dive for a third. The last stroke tempted Glenn Phillips to dive to try to catch it but he couldn’t pick the flight. You’ve heard of Steve Waugh’s mental disintegration? That was Dawid Malan’s art of dental disintegration ... almost. Simon Doull howls a sigh of relief when the ball misses Phillips’ face by a gnat’s. 

Lockie Ferguson comes on in the Powerplay with his black boots, black headband and tache making him look like a Dodgeballer. Jacks decides he has to go, flaying the first delivery as he went up en pointe for four then smacks the next over mid-off for four more. Ferguson tries a fuller length and Jacks withdraws his front leg and drives it with a hint of slice over cover point for six, the ball arcing towards cover and then veering wildly back towards point in mid-air. 

Nice shot from Malan, picking Southee’s length and carting him from outside off over midwicket for four. Southee, as skilful a swing bowler as they come these days, the most artful of white-ball manipulators, serves up the same length next but takes the pace off and gets it to nip away as Malan goes for the encore and misses it by a mile.  

Jacks takes another single to third man, this time off Milne, with a dabby chop for a single. Martin Saggers belies his years of toil as a bowler by calling a marginal Milne fast outswinger a wide. Malan closes the face to work two through midwicket and, although Milne oversteps and has to deliver the final ball again, Malan can’t get the 90mph man away for runs off the free hit. 

Will Jacks becomes Jonny Bairstow’s 13th opening partner in T20 internationals but their opening stab at it lasts only two balls. After YJB works four off his pads and a Southee wide, the New Zealand captain gets one to sing away and kiss Bairstow’s edge. Jonny, as he often does, gives the pitch a filthy look and stands there, his mouth betraying both surprise and disgust at some perceived injustice. Enter Malan, who gets off the mark after a second hooping wide, with a dab down to third man and Jacks follows suit to farm the strike. 

Bairstow c Mitchell b Southee 4  Swing for the Kiwi captain and, having been smashed for four off the first ball, he nicks Bairstow off to slip.  FOW 5/1

A striking debut from Brydon Carse, an encouraging comeback after a first-over mauling from Luke Wood who regularly scaled 90mph and Liam Livingstone’s best performance with the ball for a while will give England plenty of positives. Needing 140 to win, we should pint out that they were bowled out for 121 by India and 101 by South Africa last year when chasing modest totals at home. 

After taking his second wicket of the match with the first ball of the final over, Carse loses his line and length and barrels down a big, wide bouncer. Good take from Buttler. Southee retreats to leg and chips a drive over cover for four then chisels two down to long on. Carse tries a slower ball that Southee can only poke to cover for a single before the debutant makes it three by gulling Sodhi to end with 4-0-23-3. 

Sodhi c Curran b Carse 16  Another off-cutter, this one sticking in the pitch and messing up Sodhi’s timing, is flipped to deep backward square. FOW 137/9

Milne b Carse 10  Big off-cutter does for Milne after Carse slides his big fingers down the seam to bamboozle Milne and rearrange middle and leg stumps.  FOW 129/7

Sam Curran is given the penultimate over and, after he is monstered for six with a short-arm swipe over midwicket by Sodhi, he skirts the right side of the wide line to keep them down to just a two, a single and a leg-bve off the next five. The last ball, which earned two. was clothed between long off and cover. Bairstow couldn’t get there. 

An over too many for Livingstone, perhaps as they take him for three singles and a two before Milne waltzes down and deposits a leg break into the long pasture at deep midwicket for six. Wood ended with three for 37, Livingstone with one for 25.

Wood will bowl out and chips in with his third wicket, bagging Phillips after he smeared him through the covers for four. Enter Sodhi, who fancies himself an all-rounder even at No9, and he takes on Wood’s short ball with a dainty uppercut, slicing it over the slips for four. 

Phillips c Curran b Wood 41  Terrific, diving catch from Curran at long off as the ball swerved to his left off Phillips’ fade drive.  FOW 103/7  

New Zealand just can’t get the spinners away, frustrating themselves by working only three singles. Livingstone has 3-0-13-1. A terrific hunch from Buttler to keep him on after he took a wicket in his first over. 

Not only did he hit it, he middled it. 

Phillips lbw b Livingstone Seemed to hit it. 

Adil had take a wee bit of tap but comes back on and breaks the stand. Phillips had used the cut before it led to Santner’s dismissal, cleaving it away for two. 

Santner c Wood b Rashid 8  And he duly delivers for his captain, pulling his length back and inviting the cut. The gentle turn and bounce makes it take the top edge and he spears it to short third man. FOW 96/6

Another fine over from Livingstone of off-breaks to Santner and leg-breaks to Phillips, both of whom can glean only four between them, thwarted by dip and some excellent England groundfielding. 

Buttler turns back to Rashid, his partnership breaker.

Sam Curran returns for only his second over and Phillips walks across his crease to reach a ball angled across him and flat bat it very hard through square leg for four. After Phillips drives through for a single, Santner walks the other way towards the square leg umpire and Curran follows him. The left-hander flips it away for a single and Phillips follows that with a slapped cut for two. Curran, always improvising, always thinking, ends with a slower ball that Phillips almost falls over waiting for it to come on. All he can do is push it back to the all-rounder.  

Ben Stokes earmarked Brydon Carse, his Durham team-mate, for England recognition as soon as he became Test captain last year but injuries restricted opportunities to just a handful of ODIs. He was ahead of Josh Tongue at the start of this season, a similar style of bowler, and it feels all of a sudden as if England have a decent stock of hit-the-deck seamers…if they stay fit.

Lima Livingstone hasn’t been at his best for England this past year but he starts with a fine over of multifaceted-spin. Santner, the left-hander, is treated to off-breaks, one of which he slams through extra cover for four. 

Mitchell c Brook b Livingstone 7 After a big turning leg-break the previous ball, Livingstone gives this one another rip and Mitchell takes a stride and cloths it with the inside half of his bat down long-off’s throat.  FOW 75/5

Carse is brought back into the attack after some cobbling. He split one of his boots during his first spell and first tried to fix it with some tape before bowing to the inevitable and summoning a fresh one. He continues at 88mph, giving the batsmen not time to line him up with his bounce that clatters into the top half of the bat, rather than the meat, threatening the splice. But then he errs too full and Phillips clumps him past mid-off for four.

Liam Livingstone is thrown the ball. Jos Buttler also has Will Jacks if he fancies a seventh option. 

Carse is given a bit of a runaround on the cover point boundary by the ball carroming crazily around after Phillips cuts Moeen. But he dives to save boundaries and keeps him down to a pair of deuces to go with three prodded and/or poked singles. 

Time for drinks. 

Glenn Phillips turns Barney Rubble to thump Rashid’s flipper back over the bowler’s head baseball style, clubbing it. They nurdle three further singles but Rashid almost gets his man with the last delivery that Phillips drills into the pitch and is shocked when it bounces back up and smacks him flush in the mooey, well protected by the grille fortunately. 

Chapman was trying to work that one through midwicket, closed the face and was beaten all ends up by his own misinterpretation. Fine start from Moeen again. 

Chapman b Moeen 11  What a peach! Round the wicket to the left-hander, nice dip and pitched on off, skidding on and hitting off as Chapman loses his balance.  FOW 49/4

Buttler turns to Rashid and Chapman takes a leg-break on a trip to cow corner, mowing it over midwicket for six! But Rashid, with all the confidence his eight years around the top of the global white-ball bowling rankings have given him, fights back with flight and dip, yielding only two more singles, both through cover. 

Wood has been magnificent since that first over, reaching 91mph then taking the pace off to diddle Seifert. New Zealand have been a bit one-dimensional, even for T20, looking for very little apart from big hits. 

Chapman gets away by driving three off the back foot through cover. Jonny Bairstow gives chase and rakes it in before the boundary. 

Seifert b Wood 9  The left-armer comes round the wicket, takes the pace down to 82mph and diddles him with his slower ball by wrapping his fingers around the seam. Seifert winds up for a drive and is through the shot before the ball gets to the bat and has only a split-second to wait to hear the death rattle of off stump.  FOW 35/3

What an impressive start this has been by Carse. He’s bowling in the high 80s, varying his length and seems to extract real bone jarring heaviness with his bounce. 

Allen b Carse 21  The hometown hero chips in with a first T20i wicket. Nips it back at 88mph to knock back leg stump as the right-hander attempted to whoosh it over square leg.  FOW 31/2

Excellent comeback from Luke Wood and well supported by his field to register four dot balls and a wicket until Tim Siefert, the keeper-batsman, uses the angle back into the right-hander to whisk four over midwicket with a flick of the wrists after a very high backlift gave him the momentum to make it race away. 

Conway c Buttler b Wood 3  Fine captaincy from Buttler to bolster Wood’s confidence by sticking with him but changing ends. Two dot balls, both following the left-hander as he tried to give himself room to hit over the offside are followed by one outside off, back of a length and he chases it, feathering and edge through to the keeper.  FOW 25/1 

That’s the end of Wood for now. Carse is given the responsibility on his home ground and begins with three dot balls as Allen tries to throw the kitchen sink at them but doesn’t connect. Good pace and a canny line defeats the assault. In fact all he concedes all over is a single to Allen and a leg-bye to the total with hard, heavy bounce and some nibble if no swing. 

Curran, England’s matchwinner at the MCG in the World Cup final, starts fairly full and manages to shape it into Conway who whips it off his toes for two. The next ball is fired down the legside and rightly called wide. But he keeps nagging away with a full length and Conway defends one then opens the face to squirt a drive through point for a single.

The swing almost does for Allen who smashes a drive off the inside half of his bat back up the pitch. Curran leaps in his followthrough but the ball bursts between the tips of his middle and ring fingers. Would have been a blinder had he held on. 

Wood begins encouragingly fast and full, with some swing, racking up a couple of dot balls, the first a yorker that Allen tries to drive. That’s all it takes for Allen to get a sniff of what Wood’s about as he smashes the next three balls for six, wedging Wood over long off for his first then pulling the next two 10 rows back. Two short balls from Wood are absolutely collared and now the ball needs replacing. Once the swing disappeared, Wood looked vulnerable and Allen slaughtered the next three. 

Still one to come. Wood opts for the yorker, doesn’t land it but fires it into Allen’s pad at ankle height and gets out of a deep hole with a dot ball. 

Sam Curran next. England are very heavy on left-armers at the moment. 

A remarkable start to the game, as Finn Allen launches three successive sixes off Luke Wood. Not small sixes, or a small ground either. Beautiful ball striking. 

The left-armer has been given the honours. 

Beautiful evening at CLS, and a sellout crowd. Should be good fun this between two fine sides. England’s batting looks stronger than their bowling, while New Zealand’s bowling looks stronger than their batting. Neat, then, that the game will be set up in the first innings... 

Who played those three T20s against UAE this month after almost a year out with a stress injury of the back has been rested for today but Tim Southee is confident he’ll be fit and firing at some point in this series as they manage his return.

England  Jonny Bairstow, Will Jacks, Dawid Malan, Harry Brook, Jos Buttler (capt and wk), Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Adil Rashid, Brydon Carse, Luke Wood.

NZ  Devon Conway, Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Glenn Phillips, Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi, Tim Southee (capt), Lockie Ferguson. 

And have put New Zealand in.

‘No particular reason but we fancy a chase,’ says Jos Buttler.

We’ve just seen a T20 cap presented to Durham’s Brydon Carse, by his team-mate Mark Wood. Gus Atkinson will have to wait until the second game on Friday for a go. England like both men a lot, largely because of their pace. I would not be at all surprised to see them in India on the Test tour in January. 

Cloudy but dry and a temperature falling from 16C at the start to about 13C by the time Tom Bradby hears his first Bong!

For tonight’s match, and tonight’s match only, we are unable to offer you an automated score summary and scoreboard graphic. These gizmos have been redesigned along with the football and rugby ones as we prepare for the World Cup but will not be ready until the second T20 on Friday. We are sorry and will endeavour to maintain accurate scores manually at the top of each over’s entry. 

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of the first T20 in England’s four-match series against New Zealand as international cricket returns after its 30-day Hundred hiatus. It might seem counter-intuitive in a four-format world to start the warm-up process for the 13th Cricket World Cup starting in October by playing 20- rather than 50-over cricket but, certainly for the batsman at least, with a see-ball-hit-ball approach since the grand Morgan/Strauss/Farbrace/Bayliss revolution/coming into the light of 2015, it makes little difference.

For the bowlers, particularly those who will be expected to take on the hardest shifts between the powerplays in India, T20 cricket is no preparation at all. Having said that, an ODI in Durham as summer fades towards autumn is not much preparation for Ahmedabad and England’s World Cup defence either. These four T20s will be followed by four ODIs against New Zealand, when Ben Stokes, Kane Williamson and Trent Boult come back into the fold, three ODIs against Ireland and a match against India in Guwahati a month today followed by a final warm-up against Bangladesh in the same stadium before they take on NZ in their opener on Oct 5.

England have Harry Brook, Brydon Carse, Chris Jordan, Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed and Luke Wood in this squad but not in the provisional 15 for India and all of them, we are told, will have a chance to press their claims. Surrey’s Gus Atkinson, the Bradfield Bullet, capable of the consistent 90mph+ pace that has earned him a place in the World Cup party, will make his international debut in this series but may be spared until Friday after his exertions in the Hundred final on Sunday.

New Zealand, who defeated UAE 2-1 with a makeshift side 10 days ago, have their Hundred players – Devon Conway, Finn Allen, Glenn Phillips, Daryl Mitchell and Adam Milne – back but, remarkably, have not played a T20 in England for eight years. The Riverside has not hosted one for six years and England return to Chester-le-Street for the first time since Matty Potts almost melted under a venomous sun in an ODI defeat by South Africa last year which marked Ben Stokes’ first retirement from 50-over cricket.

The match starts at 6pm. Join us for coverage of the toss from 5.30pm.