England T20

The England cricket team are currently touring New Zealand. The first competition is three Twenty20 games, played in Auckland, Hamilton and finally in Wellington. Having lost the first match, the Black Caps were able to turn the tables on England in Hamilton, levelling the series and making the Wellington game the decider.

As an employee of the series sponsor, we had free tickets, so, after a short visit to D4 for some pre-match refreshment, a bunch of us headed down to the Westpac stadium to watch the match.

Despite losing in Hamilton after winning the toss and deciding to put The Black Caps in, England followed exactly the same tactic in Wellington. Was this to be a "that's the last thing they'll expect" -type thing, like generals ordering troops over the top in World War 1 for the umpteenth time?

Out came the Black Caps, and proceeded to put on a fairly lacklustre show of batting. No-one really got hold of the innings and the boundaries were few and far between. By the end, they'd put on 139/8. Not a big target in T20, and the England openers were able to dispose of it in 13 overs without troubling their No. 3 batsman.

Guptill sends one to the boundary

First blood to England, then. But now the ODI series starts with three games in Hamilton, Napier and Auckland. The first of these is under way as I write, with England all out for 258.