Ross Taylor strikes career-best 181 as England blow chance to secure series win over New Zealand

New Zealand (339-5) beat England (335-9) by five wickets

Ross Taylor struck a brilliant career-best unbeaten 181 (Getty)

Ross Taylor struck a brilliant career-best unbeaten 181 as England blew a golden opportunity to secure a series-sealing win against New Zealand at the University Oval.

Eoin Morgan’s team may have set their opponents a record chase on this ground of 336 in the fourth ODI following fine centuries by Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root. And they surely would have been out of sight at halfway had it not been for a horrendous collapse of six wickets for 21 runs when they were well set on 267 for one in the 38th over of their innings.

At that stage, with Bairstow having posted his first overseas ODI century and Root in the 80s, a total of around 400 looked likely. Instead, Bairstow fell for 138 and the rest of the batting line-up bar Root, who made 102, misfired badly.

How costly that implosion would be wasn’t initially clear after New Zealand collapsed to two for two in the third over of their chase. But Taylor ultimately proved the difference as New Zealand won by five wickets and with three balls to spare to level the series at 2-2 and set up a decider in Christchurch on Saturday. Taylor had also scored a hundred to condemn England to defeat in the series opener in Hamilton.

Root hit an impressive 102 (Getty)

But what made this knock even more impressive was the fact he was forced to battle a recurrence of the thigh injury that saw him miss the previous match in Wellington last weekend.

Morgan played down his team’s dramatic collapse as a “one-off” and insisted England will not change their ultra-aggressive batting style.

He said: “It has been a one-off, that’s the thing. We’ve certainly had collapses of the top order. But we’ve not had a collapse like that. Normally one of us has come off. If it continues to be a pattern we’ll look into it deeply. But I’m a big fan of over-ambition. We’ve scored 400 twice. When two guys play out of their skin to do that, we’ve got to put the cream on the cake and the cherry on top. We were miles away from it today.”

England were 77 for one in the 11th over when they initially lost Jason Roy, hitting Ish Sodhi to short fine leg on 42. The leg-spinner would eventually end up with figures of four for 58.

But Root and Bairstow put on 190 for the second wicket to take the game away from New Zealand. Bairstow was the dominant partner, reaching fifty in 38 balls and his third ODI hundred in 86.

Bairstow hit his first overseas ODI century (Getty)

Among the highlights of his innings were two monster sixes off Sodhi, with the first in the 17th over presumably still travelling towards Invercargill.

In all Bairstow, dropped on 74 and 78, cleared the ropes seven times and his team were still in a great position when he was caught by Tim Southee after top-edging Colin Munro.

With 12.2 overs to go and a host of power hitters to come, they were well on course for a 400-plus score.

But then mayhem ensued as first Jos Buttler, promoted above Morgan, was caught and bowled by Sodhi for a second-ball duck. With Morgan, Ben Stokes and Moeen Ali still to come and 70 balls remaining, 267 for three was still a very healthy position.

Less so 280 for six after all three of those big hitters came and went in the space of 16 deliveries, Sodhi’s leg-breaks picking up Stokes and Moeen and Morgan caught trying to pull Trent Boult.

Luckily for England they still had one batsman well set in Root, but he was forced to slow down as he lost partners with alarming regularity. He had been on 84 when Bairstow departed. By the time he got to three figures, England were 304 for seven in the 47th over.

Taylor score came in spite of a thigh injury (Getty)

They were eight down in the next when Root was caught behind off Southee. Tom Curran at least hit four successive fours off the final over of the innings, bowled by Southee, to get his team’s total close to 340.

New Zealand’s chase got off to the worst start possible Mark Wood, trapping Munro lbw with his first ball, and Woakes, removing Martin Guptill, struck early.

Stokes then had home captain Kane Williamson caught behind with his first ball to leave New Zealand 86 for three in the 17th over. That brought Tom Latham and Taylor together and the fourth-wicket pair shared a 187-run stand before the former holed out to Curran in the 42nd over.

Moeen had earlier dropped Latham on four. By the time he eventually departed for 71, New Zealand needed 63 from 48 balls.

Taylor reached his hundred in the 35th over and by the 40th, 80 were needed from 60 balls, although his injured thigh flared up before he reached 150 in the 42nd over.

By the time Colin De Grandhomme’s cameo of 23 from 12 balls was ended by Curran in the 46th over, the hosts needed less than a run a ball. And despite some nerves as Taylor’s thigh prevented him from running, Henry Nicholls sealed the win with a six off Curran in the final over.