Batting first, New Zealand began by losing Brendon McCullum on the last ball of the first over from Steven Finn. But Martin Guptill and Kane Williamson added 94 for the second wicket and after Williamson fell, another 49 came from the partnership between Guptill and Ross Taylor. There was some hiccup as Guptill and Santner departed in quick succession but New Zealand were propped up by Taylor and Grant Elliott as the score went past 200 in the 41st over. In the remaining 9 overs New Zealand batted briskly and ended their 50 overs with 283/9.
Rain delayed the start of England’s chase for about two hours and finally, when the weather cleared, the victory target was revised to 192 in 26 overs. England’s top-order batsmen made a mess of the chase and slumped to 45/5 in 9.1 overs. The wicket was sluggish and England batsmen couldn’t adjust to the variation. Though Alex Hales fell to a brilliant catch from Williamson, Joe Root came too far down the crease off Santner’s ball and was stumped by Ronchi on second attempt. Skipper Morgan played a slog-sweep and holed out to deep midwicket for a golden duck. Ben Stokes also lost his wicket in trying to hit a six and Jason Roy’s dismissal made it 45/5. On the crease now were two wicketkeepers and one of them was Yorkshire’s Jonny Bairstow. Just when English fans cursed earlier batsmen for their sordid batting and rued a lost cause, Jonny Bairstow began to transform the scenario.
Bairstow and Sam Billings added 80 in 57 balls for the sixth wicket and New Zealand couldn’t control the free-swinging Bairstow. Earlier, when the required run-rate touched 9 per over, the balance was in New Zealand’s favour. But Bairstow changed all that. New Zealand could have killed the chase as Bairstow was dropped twice; once by Ronchi when on 39 and second time Mitchell Santner dropped a sitter, when Bairstow had scored 56. In the last 12 balls, England needed 17. Bairstow struck two fours and a single. Then Adil Rashid added another boundary and went for a single to allow Bairstow to score the winning boundary. England won the series by 3 wickets with 6 balls remaining and Jonny Bairstow became an instant hero.