Eoin Morgan and Joe Root both struck centuries as England chased down their target of 350, with six overs to spare to level the one-day series with New Zealand 2-2, and set-up a series decider at Durham on Saturday. England arrived at Trent Bridge 2-1 down in the series having won the first match at Edgbaston, then lost the next two at The Oval and Southampton. Many observers will be pleased to see England level the series going into the final game at Durham, having been unlucky to lost at The Oval in a rain-affected game.

New Zealand captain Brendon McCullom won the toss and elected to bat first, both teams were unchanged from the previous game at Southampton. New Zealand scored at a decent rate throughout their innings and looked set to post a score somewhere near 400. Though Morgan and Root will get all the headlines in the aftermath of this match, you can’t play down the roles that Steven Finn and Mark Wood played with the ball, despite only taken one wicket apiece, they kept it tight and both only went for 5 an over throughout their ten overs, an impressive feat in what has been a high-scoring series.

Finn returned to the attack in the first of over of New Zealand’s batting powerplay and ended yet another 100 run partnership between Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson when he trapped Taylor LBW. After the loss of Taylor, New Zealand struggled for several overs as the England bowlers put a stranglehold on the New Zealand batsmen. New Zealand finished their 50 overs on 349/7, if it wasn’t for Mitchell Santner striking 28 off one Adil Rashid over the New Zealand total would have been much lower.

England began their chase for what would be their highest ever chase in a one-day match, Jason Roy and Alex Hales went on the attack from the off and plundered 97 runs from the first ten over powerplay, to set the stage for a memorable chase under the floodlights at Trent Bridge. By the time Morgan and Root came to the wicket, England were way ahead of the asking rate thanks to the big-hitting from Hales especially. Morgan and Root put on a stand 198 for third wicket in 159 balls to ensure that England reaching their target was never in doubt. Morgan fell on 113 from 82 balls with England in sight of the finish line and shortly before England reached the finishing line Root also completed his century, the second time in this series that England have had two centurions in one innings.

Morgan – Century My Best Ever

After the match captain Eoin Morgan claimed this century was his best in an England shirt, Morgan reached his century off 73 balls and when he was finally out, had scored 113 off 82 balls, his innings included 12 fours and 5 sixes, including a six that took to his century.

Morgan has found his form again in this series having struggled throughout England’s disaster of a World Cup campaign. He has passed 50 in four matches, scoring 322 runs at an average of 80.5.

After game he stated that this was probably the best he had for England and Trent Bridge is a special ground for Morgan, having scored his first test century at the ground.

This is a special ground. I scored my first Test hundred at the ground and I have great memories here.

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About the author
Andy Hyslop
Manchester United season ticket holder and sports nut. Thought about writing about sport for a long and decided to go for it before it was too late. Currently studying a Freelance Journalism course with the long-term goal of becoming a Freelance Sports Journalist