Tim Southee produced a brilliant spell of swing bowling for career-best figures of seven for 33 before Brendon McCullum plundered an 18-ball half-century as New Zealand destroyed England by eight wickets in their World Cup Pool A match on Friday.
Southee’s performance saw England dismissed for 123, with Joe Root top-scoring with 46, before New Zealand captain McCullum’s 77 from 25 balls helped the co-host roar to victory in 12.2 overs at Wellington Regional Stadium.
New Zealand’s celebrations were delayed 40 minutes to allow for a scheduled innings break, though needing only 12 runs with nine wickets in hand.
McCullum took 18 runs off pace bowler Stuart Broad’s first over, the second of the innings, and then 20 off seamer Steve Finn, who had immediately replaced Broad. He then belted four successive sixes off Finn’s next over, which went for 29 runs.
New Zealand was 96 for no loss after six overs with their captain seemingly intent on pushing an already dispirited England further into despair. McCullum was bowled by Chris Woakes with a full toss after hitting eight fours and seven sixes.
McCullum’s innings, the fastest half-century at a World Cup, threatened to overshadow the superb bowling effort by Southee, who produced the best figures by a New Zealand bowler in one-dayers. Shane Bond’s six for 19 against India in 2005 was the previous best.
Southee did not get much movement in sunny conditions at the top of the innings after Eoin Morgan decided to bat but still managed to bowl Moeen Ali (20) and Ian Bell (eight) with yorkers that did swing late.
He later returned to produce a spell of five for 10 in four overs to set up the platform for victory.
Speaking after the match, McCullum said the crushingly lopsided win was a ‘bizarre’ achievement.
“It’s a great win, while England have probably struggled of late, we knew we’d have to keep them quiet,” said the Kiwi skipper.
“To win by that sort of margin, it’s bizarre really. We’ve earned ourselves a good break after a great first week of the tournament.”
Southee, roared on by a capacity 33,000 crowd at the Westpac Stadium, said: “A packed house was pretty special to come out in front of. We’ve been bowling well as a group for a long time and today was one of those moments when it all went well for us.”
With non-Test nation Scotland next up, England captain Eoin Morgan was optimistic the worst was over for his battered team.
“I thought New Zealand bowled really well. Conditions suited them — it swung throughout our innings which was unexpected,” he said.
“We need a win as soon as possible now.”
