England stormed to a 10-wicket win over New Zealand in the deciding Twenty20 international to take the series 2-1.
Opting to bowl first they restricted the Kiwis to 139-8, Stuart Broad taking
3-15 and Jade Dernbach 3-36.
Alex Hales (80) and Michael Lumb (53) saw the tourists home with 44 balls
left in England's record opening stand.
Hales, whose innings comprised just 42 balls, dispatched three sixes and a
four in four deliveries and Lumb won the match with a six out of the ground.
Broad admitted he made a mistake electing to bowl first
in Hamilton, where his team collapsed to a 55 run defeat but the previous four internationals at Wellington had all been won
by the chasing side and fielding soon proved the correct decision.
On a ground known as the Cake Tin, Broad and Steven Finn found plenty of
spice and lift from the drop-in surface, Broad breaking through with a fast,
accurate short ball that was to be the recipe for all three of his wickets.
That brought the dangerous Brendon McCullum to the crease in the fourth over,
the man who destroyed England in Hamilton with 74 from 38 balls, and he thumped
Dernbach's opening delivery ruthlessly through mid-off for four.
But he fell to the spin of James Tredwell, who conceded 11 in his first over
but returned to have the New Zealand captain smartly caught on the mid-wicket
boundary by Jonny Bairstow.
Far from disheartened, the crowd cheered the returning local hero Ross
Taylor, banners suggesting him for Prime Minister, and he delighted them with a
slog sweep for six in off-spinner Joe Root's first over.
But he attempted the same stroke to the next ball, delivered slightly wider
of off-stump from Root, bowling around the wicket, and with the boundaries
subtly larger than in the previous two games, Taylor was caught on the
mid-wicket rope, again by the safe hands of Bairstow.
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