All posts by h716a5.icu

USA Cricket Association president Gladstone Dainty has gone on record to explain his board’s finances as well as the position of non-compliant leagues

Martin Williamson22-Nov-2012USA Cricket Association president Gladstone Dainty has denied claims that certain leagues were excluded from April’s elections because they did not agree with the way the board was being run.Only 15 of the 37 leagues in America were deemed by an independent review in 2011 to meet the necessary criteria to allow them to vote in elections, although all leagues remain eligible to receive other benefits. Despite this, a number of them have thrown in their lot with the breakaway but unofficial American Cricket federation.”I would like to state it’s not true the board targeted certain regions,” Dainty told ESPNcricinfo. “The constitution is quite clear about the compliance procedures and the rules are there in the constitution and in the laws of the United States. A number of leagues were not compliant because they did not pay something as simple as dues for the number of clubs who are playing.”This position was endorsed by USACA treasurer John Thickett. “No league was sanctioned in any way and USACA has provided a large amount of material to non-compliant leagues to help them to become compliant and offered the services of its staff to also assist them. By example, some leagues did not have a written constitution, did not hold elections, and there was widespread membership dues evasion. Very few leagues had youth or women’s programs in place – a key development objective.”All USACA members are welcome to attend the AGM. On voting matters, all members in good standing are eligible to vote.”Dainty also stressed that the real issue was one of development. “The ICC spends $600k to $700k a year on USACA – $300k in cash and then on top of that the ICC pays for tournaments and other events. In terms of dues paid from inside the USA we get about $100k, so the noise you hear about these contributors to US cricket – and some of them are even challenging the authority of the ICC – is really not good for the development of the sport.””To break down the economics a little more, USACA membership is $100 per team per year,” Thickett explained. “When USACA sends any one of the national teams to an ICC tournament the costs can easily run to $5000 per player. Individuals who don’t want USACA to be a member of the ICC don’t understand the economics of ICC membership.””Some clubs and leagues are talking about being in existence for over 100 years but what do we have to show for it?” Dainty continued. “In terms of the noise you are hearing this hasn’t affected a single player. USACA doesn’t stop a single league or person from doing anything. It’s about growing the sport and not creating environments for individuals.Dainty also dismissed claims USACA was effectively bankrupt. “From a conservative accounting standpoint, there are lots of debts. We get advances against the rights for the professional league, but we should have been getting revenue from them of about $500k per quarter; we’ve been getting about half of that. We will get that when the league is in place and the investors are confident that money will come in.”He agreed that the balance sheet would show a poor position – for now. “In booking that revenue the independent auditors are saying: ‘You are owed a massive amount of money by an entity which does not have that money right now … we won’t recognise that revenue right now but we are convinced you will get it’.”But he said that in the event of the league not being ready to launch – and he insisted it would be – then there was no cause for concern. “We can live with any delay as we are not spending all the money we are getting allocated.”

Shiv Thakor, the Leicestershire allrounder, has been named captain of an inexperienced Under-19 squad to tour South Africa next year

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Dec-2012Shiv Thakor, the Leicestershire allrounder, has been named captain of an inexperienced England Under-19 squad to tour South Africa next year.Thakor, 19, is one of the most highly-rated young players in the county game and already has a first-class average of 51.41 having played nine matches. With his medium pace he has also claimed seven wickets.The emphasis of the trip, which includes two four-day Youth Tests and five Youth one-day internationals, is on preparing for the next U-19 World Cup which will be held in 2014. So some players who remain eligible for the age group, such as the Essex left-arm quick Reece Topley and the Overton brothers, Craig and Jamie from Somerset, have not been selected.England were knocked out in the quarter-finals of this year’s U-19 World Cup in Australia.Tim Boon, the U-19 coach, said: “Shiv Thakor of Leicestershire has been appointed tour captain and is one of three Under-19s players. The squad includes five players with high potential who have graduated from the ECB’s Under-17s England Development Programme. The learning curve will be steep with three international series prior to the next ICC Under-19s World Cup in February 2014.”Four players still eligible for the Under-19s squad have progressed to the Potential England Performance Programme fast bowlers squad while Essex wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, a recent graduate from the England Development Programme, has also toured India this winter with the EPP.”Aside from Thakor, just two other members of the squad have played first-team cricket for their counties. Ben Duckett has made one Twenty20 appearance for Northamptonshire and his county team-mate Oli Stone has more extensive experience with three first-class matches, eight one-dayers and four T20s.The first tour match in South Africa starts on January 23 with the opening four-day game, in Cape Town, from January 27. The trip runs until February 21.Squad Shiv Thakor (Leicestershire, capt), Tom Barber (Hampshire), Ed Barnard (Worcestershire), Ben Duckett (Northamptonshire), Harry Finch (Sussex), Ryan Gibson (Yorkshire), Gavin Griffiths (Lancashire), Miles Hammond (Gloucestershire), Callum Jackson (Sussex), Josh Shaw (Yorkshire), Tom Shrewsbury (Gloucestershire), Dominic Sibley (Surrey), Olly Stone (Northamptonshire), Jonny Tattersall (Yorkshire), Kishen Velani (Essex)

Dane van Niekerk took two wickets and top-scored in South Africa Women’s successful run chase to and put the tourists 2-0 up in the five-match series

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2013
ScorecardDane van Niekerk took two wickets and top-scored in South Africa Women’s successful run chase to and put the tourists 2-0 up in the five-match series. Spinners van Niekerk and Sunette Loubser claimd six wickets between them as West Indies Women struggled to 128 all out and, despite falling to 0 for 2 and 58 for 5, South Africa recovered to wrap up a four-wicket win with two overs to spare.Defending a small target, West Indies needed early wickets and they got them through Shanel Daley and Stafanie Taylor. South Africa openers Shandre Fritz and Trisha Chetty fell for ducks before a 45-run partnership between captain, Mignon du Preez, and Marizanne Kapp steadied the innings. Three wickets then fell for 13 runs and when Cri-zelda Brits departed with the score on 90 there was still work to do but No. 8 Yolandi Potgieter joined van Niekerk to add the required 39 for victory.West Indies had got off to a far better start, having chosen to bat, but after Taylor’s 29 at opener, too many batsmen got in and then out. Six other players reached double figures but none got out of the teens as Loubser, whose eight overs went for just 11 runs, and van Niekerk applied the pressure. The dangerous Deandra Dottin made just 10 from 41 balls and after West Indies captain, Merissa Aguillera, departed at 102 the last five wickets mustered 26 between them.

Sri Lanka’s collective was enough to overcome an Australian team that left far too much up to David Warner on their national day

Daniel Brettig at Sydney Olympic Stadium26-Jan-2013
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDavid Warner was almost solely responsible for a defensible Australian total•Associated PressSri Lanka’s collective effort was enough to overcome an Australian team that left far too much up to David Warner on their National Day with the visitors claiming a five-wicket victory on a pudding of a drop-in pitch at Sydney’s Olympic Stadium.After their bowlers had been brilliantly supported in the field to restrict Australia to 3 for 137 – of which Warner made no fewer than 90 – the Sri Lankans made a rapid start to the chase and then steadied against the loss of mid-innings wickets to take a 1-0 lead with seven balls to spare.Angelo Mathews showed the cool head that has him marked as his nation’s long-term leader to finish off the innings. There were cameos, too, from Kushal Perera, Lahiru Thirimanne and Thisara Perera, all of whom will be happy that Sri Lanka cannot now lose this series after also tying the ODI matches.Nuwan Kulasekara and Thisara Perera were both exemplary with the ball, though Kulasekara undid much of his good work by turfing the simplest of chances at deep midwicket when Warner had made only 69.While there was no switch-hit of the kind he managed in this fixture against India last year, Warner’s controlled aggression to bat through the innings was all the more admirable for the difficult surface on which he demonstrated it, and the relative lack of prowess shown by the rest.Aaron Finch was again out cheaply at international level, while Shaun Marsh made an unhappy return to the national team in his first match since last summer, run out for only six. George Bailey also failed to make a score, leaving Adam Voges to offer inconspicuous but valuable support to Warner, who found it far easier than his team-mates to split the field and find the boundary.Sri Lanka’s pursuit began with speed and audacity, Tillakaratne Dilshan executed one of his trademark scoops from the bowling of Mitchell Starc so effectively that it sailed for six a few metres to the offside of the wicketkeeper. Kushal Perera was more orthodox, but struck the ball cleanly as Australia cast around for a momentum changer.They found it in Ben Laughlin, recalled for his first T20 international since 2009. Known primarily for his slower ball variations, Laughlin squeezed a bouncer past Dilshan and into the gap between helmet and grille, forcing a delay while a cut above the eye was treated. The break disrupted Sri Lanka’s flow, and it was Laughlin who took advantage in the field sprawling to grasp a Dilshan half-chance from Xavier Doherty.The surface’s sluggishness lent itself to bowlers not offering much pace, and Glenn Maxwell’s introduction brought further wickets. Kushal Perera snicked an attempted cut behind, and Dinesh Chandimal was held at long off. Mahela Jayawardene played all around a flighted ball from Doherty, and when Thirimanne sliced Mitchell Starc to backward point the chase was drifting.But Mathews played with calm and precision, while his opposite number Bailey seemed to miss a couple of tricks by not using Maxwell’s full quota and also not calling on the quite respectable left-arm spin of Voges.Laughlin’s earlier heroics were to be overshadowed as Mathews took to him for critical boundaries to cut the target down, and Thisara Perera ended the contest with a pair of sixes from the same bowler, delighting the Sri Lankan minority in a crowd of 40,242.Australia’s earlier progress was laborious, the batsmen struggling for timing on a drop-in pitch that offered them little in the way of consistent pace. Finch’s stay was ended when he tried to turn Kulasekara to the legside and proffered a front edge that was nicely held by Kushal Perera.Marsh was soon back at the boundary’s edge himself, run out by Dilshan’s underarm after turning back on the most optimistic of singles, but Warner endured. Recognising the slowness of the surface, he stayed on the back foot for much of the time, punching shorter balls through the offside and only swinging straight at the fullest of deliveries.It proved an effective method and, after Bailey perished to another mistimed stroke, Voges hung in to allow Warner to push Australia to a better total than they might have imagined at 3 for 53 after nine overs. Nonetheless, a total of 137 looked slim, and so it was to prove.

Owais Shah has clarified the delay in the 25% of his $75,000 payment was because of an error in the bank details he had provided

Mohammad Isam02-Feb-2013Owais Shah has clarified the delay in the 25% of his $75,000 payment was because of an error in the bank details he had provided. He had initially complained about not being paid despite receiving a remittance slip from the BCB and had termed the situation “embarrassing” for the board.”In regards to my initial payment of 25 percent, the issue has been rectified,” Shah said in an email sent via his agent. “Initially, the bank details I provided to the BCB didn’t seem to go through properly which was unfortunate. It resulted in the delay but the BCB have acted very efficiently and I’m now happy with where things stand, which is great.”BCB’s acting chief executive Nizamuddin Chowdhury said Shah’s reaction was “premature” as the payments often take a few extra days to process. The bank had confirmed on Thursday that the transfer of the amount was not possible without the correct IBAN (International Bank Account Number).”A player of Owais Shah’s reputation gave a premature reaction in the public domain. This is regrettable,” Chowdhury told ESPNcricinfo. “Our bank sent us a correspondence on Thursday that the IBAN was incorrect and hence, his agent provided us with the information again and we had to make the transfer once again. Apart from the IBAN, a player has to provide his name, account number and swift code in order to transfer money from the country. In good faith, we had also given him the remittance slip that the bank provided us, so it is quite clear where we stand in this regard.”

Ahead of the crucial fourth ODI, South Africa’s management appears a little worried about the ‘subcontinental’ wicket in Durban, but AB de Villiers has said he was not the “kind of guy who worries about stuff like that”

Firdose Moonda20-Mar-2013If actions reveal more than words, the behaviour of South Africa’s think tank cancel out AB de Villiers’ claim that the Kingsmead pitch is not a worry ahead of what could be a series-deciding ODI against Pakistan.For half-an-hour on Tuesday, Gary Kirsten and team manager Mohammad Moosajee held animated conversation with the chief executive of the Dolphins, Jesse Chellan and groundsman Wilson Ngobese and they were not just catching up. The topic of conversation was the strip and it was clear South Africa were not happy.They complained about the surface being too dry and were concerned it would take too much turn, which would play into Pakistan’s hands perfectly. They wanted something that would suit their own team better – specifically a harder surface. Later in the afternoon, Ngobese and his staff watered the strip. On Wednesday, there was no meeting, only polite hellos.Such is South Africa’s paranoia with Durban. Over the past two seasons, South Africa have labelled Kingsmead, “subcontinental,” after losing Test matches to both India and Sri Lanka. Mysteriously, this season Durban did not host any Test and was only given a Twenty20 against New Zealand and another against Pakistan, along with tomorrow’s ODI.South Africa earned an emphatic eight-wicket win over New Zealand but T20 against Pakistan was washed out. As a result, no-one was able to judge whether conditions in Durban would continue to suit visitors from Asia more than it does the hosts. With the one-day series on the line, it seems that is not a chance management is willing to take.Pakistan’s obvious strength is their spinners. Although South Africa have played them well they do not want to give them any additional advantage, especially not with the series poised as it is. If Pakistan win in Durban, the contest will be level again at 2-2. If South Africa win, they take the trophy.De Villiers insisted he is not the “kind of guy who worries about stuff like that,” but got in a subtle snipe at Kingsmead for not offering the team wickets they are used to. “We’re playing at home and we’d like to get bouncy and pacy tracks, which we haven’t got the whole of the season. In the last two years, the wickets in South Africa have slowed up quite a bit. It’s just one of those things you’ve got to deal with. The Kingsmead wicket looks a bit drier than normal,” he said.He quickly countered the criticism by saying if South Africa want to dominate the shortest format as they currently do in the longer one, they will have to learn to adapt. “If we want to be the No. 1 team in the world, which is the main goal eventually, we’ll have to beat any team in any conditions. If there is turn we’ll have to adapt as quickly as possible and beat Pakistan at their own game.”He went one further too and challenged the current team to prove they can perform even when the situation is not tailor-made for them. “That kind of win would give me a lot more satisfaction than beating them on a bouncy and pacy track,” he said and pointed to the performance in Johannesburg on Sunday as an example.”At the Wanderers, we got the bad end of the toss. The ball was moving around the first 10 overs and it was a very flat wicket in the afternoon. It wasn’t a bouncy, pacy track; it was a flat wicket. It suited Pakistan quite well and we just outplayed them. We’re beating them by playing good cricket and doing the basics better than them.”In particular, de Villiers was impressed with the efforts in the field where he points to the bowlers’ improvement in the absence of Morne Morkel and Jacques Kallis. “The guys are coming up with very clear game plans and they know exactly what they want to do. We were put under the pump at the Wanderers and we came through. It’s a step in the right direction to defend successfully in a game like that. Things like the death overs have always been a worry in the past and we did better in that department,” he said.The spotlight will be on the batsmen in Durban, though. If the pitch does allow Pakistan’s spinners an opening, it will also provide a stern examination of the South African middle-orders’ ability to counter them.Without Faf du Plessis, South Africa go back to being fairly inexperienced in that area. De Villiers indicated that du Plessis’ spot will be taken by David Miller and not Quinton de Kock at first. “For this game, Dave is next in line,” he said. Known as a classy, big-hitter, Miller will have to bring out his softer side to face the spin and if he can do successfully, he may earn himself a ticket to the Champions Trophy in June and his home ground, Kingsmead, a few points in the patriotism stakes.

Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch’s aggressive opening stand enabled Pune Warriors to break the longest losing streak ever in the IPL

The Report by Abhishek Purohit11-Apr-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsAaron Finch came in as Marlon Samuels’ replacement and made it count•BCCIWhen Pune Warriors stumbled to 99 for 9 after choosing to bat against Kings XI Punjab and crashed to their 11th successive defeat, their captain Angelo Mathews said his batsmen needed to sort their “intent and attitude” towards the first six overs. Warriors had made 24 for 2 in the first six overs that evening. Four days later, Robin Uthappa and Aaron Finch blasted them to 64 for 1 in the same period, and Warriors made short work of the target of 146 set by Rajasthan Royals to break the longest losing streak in the IPL.Finch was playing only because Marlon Samuels was injured, and his arrival heralded a complete change in the way Warriors approached the Powerplay. Instead of starting overcautious and getting tied down, they started aggressively and never looked back on a slowish pitch.Royals captain Rahul Dravid gambled with India Under-19 left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh for a couple of overs at the start, ahead of James Faulkner, Kevon Cooper and Siddharth Trivedi. Harmeet was making his Twenty20 debut, and while his first over went for just six, the next one was taken for 17. There was no gamble with giving Sreesanth two overs from the other end. And while the first went for just seven, the second was shredded for 21.Uthappa did most of that damage, pulling successive long-hops from Harmeet for six and also lifting Sreesanth over long-on and deep square leg for two more sixes. Warriors catapulted to 51 for 0 in four overs, the frenetic start all but ending Royals’ hopes. Though Uthappa went for 32 off 16 deliveries to a brilliant one-handed take by Dravid in an opening partnership of 58 in 4.5 overs, Finch kept going and going.He’d already lofted Harmeet and Sreesanth for a couple of straight sixes and went on punishing slight width either side of the wicket, swinging Cooper over deep square leg to reach his fifty off 36 balls. Yuvraj Singh returned after missing the previous game with an injury to finish the chase in the 19th over with a huge six over deep midwicket off Sreesanth.It wasn’t that Royals had ended short of expectations in setting the target. Rahane said during the innings break they had aimed for anything between 140 and 150. Kusal Perera had gone first ball of the match to a Bhuvneshwar Kumar inswinger, but Dravid and Rahane had set the platform with a second-wicket stand of 81 off 67.Dravid was in superb touch on his way to 54 off 48, timing several pleasing drives through the off side. Rahane rotated the strike well, but both batsmen fell to sharp catches off the spinners as Royals lost their way in the middle of the innings. Rahul Sharma was especially difficult to get away with his full and quick legbreaks. Royals did scrap some runs towards the end, but the way Uthappa and Finch batted, Warriors’ losing streak had no chance of getting extended.

Jamaica’s Sabina Park is set to get floodlights, according to Jamaica Cricket Association officials

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-2013Jamaica’s Sabina Park is set to get floodlights, according to Jamaica Cricket Association (JCA) officials. JCA president Lyndel Wright told Jamaica newspapers that the board has entered into partnership with Consolidated Energy Partners, while treasurer Nigel Logan said the fixtures should be ready in time for Jamaica’s Caribbean Premier League (CPL) matches.”Sabina Park Holdings has entered into an agreement with Consolidated Energy Partners, a member of the Genco Group Of Companies, for the provisioning of floodlights at Sabina Park,” Wright was quoted as saying by the .Logan, who is also director of Sabina Park Holdings and the chairman of its lights committee, said the project will be financed by Consolidated Energy Partners. “The funding, it’s going to be financed by the supplier. The lights will be GE lights and they will be excellent for cricket and have definition similar to what you see in the IPL.” The lights should be ready by August 5, he said, ahead of Sabina Park’s opening CPL match.The idea of floodlights had been mooted earlier this year with the CPL in mind, as Jamaica was the only center among the tournament’s six venues that did not meet the requirements to host day-night matches – reportedly a criterion for hosting CPL games.

Fawad Ahmed moved one step closer to an Ashes call-up on Thursday when a bill was introduced to federal parliament that could alter Australia’s citizenship laws

Brydon Coverdale30-May-2013Fawad Ahmed moved one step closer to an Ashes call-up on Thursday when a bill was introduced to federal parliament that could alter Australia’s citizenship laws. Under the current system, Ahmed is unable to obtain an Australian passport until August, shortly before the final Ashes Test, but if passed, the bill introduced by immigration and citizenship minister, Brendan O’Connor, would allow a fast-tracking of that passport.O’Connor did not refer to Ahmed by name in parliament on Thursday but he mentioned cricket as a sport that would be covered by the Australian Citizenship Amendment (special residence requirements) bill 2013. The changes would allow the minister to fast-track the citizenship claims of people whose work benefits Australia but who do not meet the existing residency requirements, and sportspeople would fall into that category.”The new instrument will include international cricket competitions as a specified activity and adds Cricket Australia to the list of organisations that may support an application,” O’Connor said. “The proposed amendments will give the minister the discretion to provide a pathway to citizenship for a very small number of people in very exceptional circumstances where their becoming a citizen would be of benefit to Australia. Australia should be proud to call these people their own.”However, the move is far from a guarantee of Ahmed’s Ashes eligibility, because there are only 13 sitting days of parliament remaining in the current session and a significant backlog of legislation waiting to be passed. The bill is expected to be debated next week. But it does give Cricket Australia hope that Ahmed could play a part in the early stages of their Ashes campaign after they left one place vacant when naming the 16-man squad last month.”Those of us who have seen him bowl have been very impressed with him,” national selector John Inverarity said when naming the squad. “He’s a very good legspinner and yes he does remain in contention. We’ve selected 16 players and we state now that should the need arise we will add to the squad. We don’t know when he’s going to become eligible, but there’s always that possibility.”Ahmed, 31, played ten first-class matches in Pakistan before moving to Australia in 2010 as an asylum seeker. He impressed in his first few matches with Victoria last summer, collecting 16 Sheffield Shield wickets in three games, and was highly praised by current and former players including Stuart MacGill. If he does join the Ashes squad he will increase the pressure on Nathan Lyon, the incumbent Test spinner and only specialist slow bowler in the group.”I think Nathan is well and truly aware of that,” captain Michael Clarke said this week. “He knows where he sits in the team. There is a lot of water under the bridge before we have to worry about the first Test match.”

They may have won, but England left Trent Bridge with many questions left unanswered ahead of their Champions Trophy campaign

The Report by George Dobell at Trent Bridge05-Jun-2013
ScorecardJos Buttler’s brilliant invention gave England’s innings the kick it desperately needed•PA PhotosThey may have won, but England left Trent Bridge with many questions still unanswered ahead of their Champions Trophy campaign. While a victory over New Zealand – on the face of it a comfortable victory – was welcome, it did little to answer some of the unsettling queries this series has thrown up.Most pertinently, they must ask themselves whether the outrageous contribution of Jos Buttler, in particular, and Eoin Morgan, in the dying overs of England’s innings, vindicated the sedate progress of England’s top-order in building the foundations of the late assault. Or whether the pair’s remarkable counter-attack simply masked the flaws in another worryingly passive batting performance. There is, no doubt, some truth in the former, but there may well be rather more in the latter.There are other questions, too. With James Anderson and Graeme Swann rested from this game but all but certain to play in the Champions Trophy, England provided opportunities to the likes of James Tredwell and Ravi Bopara. James Tredwell, in particular, was impressive which raises the conundrum of whether England might be best fielding two specialist spinners and which seamer would make way.And while Ravi Bopara was far from fluent with the bat, he did help eke out 57 runs for the fifth wicket and bowl the most economical spell of all the seamers. Once again, on the eve of a major event, England’s plans, their settled team and their role definition, are not quite so clear as they appeared a week ago.Certainly England would be wrong to congratulate themselves too heartily on a dead-rubber victory over a New Zealand side who started the series ranked No. 8. For most of their innings, England batted with little intent or flourish and the New Zealand bowlers controlled them as a collie might some sheep. New Zealand still won the series 2-1.Indeed, had it not been for the partnership between Buttler and Morgan – a ridiculous 62 runs from 22 legitimate deliveries – New Zealand would surely be celebrating only their second ODI whitewash (following the 3-0 victory in New Zealand in 1982-83) and England would be licking their wounds on their first home whitewash since Sri Lanka beat them 5-0 in 2006.Buttler remains a raw talent. Later he missed a relatively straightforward stumping off the bowling of Joe Root – Kane Williamson, on 14, was the fortunate batsman – that might, another day, have proved crucial. There will be days, too, when his high-risk approach with the bat does not pay off.But, when it does come off, it will be spectacular. Here, with an unbeaten 47 from just 16 balls, he delivered a most un-English display of hitting that made a nonsense of the prodding and poking from his colleagues that had preceded it. He turned this match on its head. Not just that, but he did it in a handful of overs. Very few players can do that. Even fewer of them are qualified to play for England.While his team-mates, the admirable Morgan apart, struggled with their timing throughout, Buttler batted with the power and invention that underlined the talent that has seen him fast-tracked into this England side.Not every stroke came off the middle of the bat – Buttler enjoyed a couple of fortuitous edges that ran to the boundary – but his boldness was rewarded and helped England plunder 76 from the final four overs. It was testament to a special talent, certainly, but also the nerve and hardwork of a young man who may well drag this England team into the modern age of limited-overs batting.Buttler signalled the attack by thrashing a length delivery – the third he had received from Kyle Mills – over midwicket for six before producing his trademark ramp shot to the next ball – a perfectly respectable delivery outside off stump – that brought four to fine leg. The next delivery was clipped through midwicket for another four before Buttler shaped to ramp again but, seeing the ball well outside off stump, instead lifted it over short third man for another four. It meant Mills’ over had cost 22 runs.With two more sixes in the final over off Tim Southee, Buttler faced the final ball of the innings requiring five runs to set a new world record for the fastest ODI half-century. He could manage only two, however, so Sanath Jayasuriya’s 17-ball record, set in Singapore against Pakistan in 1996, remains.Morgan, with 49 from 40 balls, also impressed. Having taken 16 balls to score his first eight runs, he struck three sixes – two over long-on and one over long-off – to add the impetus that England so dearly required.The ferocity of the counter attack – and its unconventional nature – appeared to unsettle New Zealand. Mitchell McClenaghan, who had been immaculate in claiming 3 for 23 from his first eight overs, conceded 20 from his final over, which included a succession of wides and no-balls.Until the sixth-wicket paid came together, the England innings had struggled to move out of second gear. Ian Bell laid something of a platform with an innings of 82 off 96 balls, but failed to fully capitalise and none of his top-order colleagues could stay with him or accelerate as required.McClenaghan, a scourge of England throughout the series, bustled in to trap Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott with straight deliveries, while his third spell ended Bell’s innings when the batsman drove to mid off. Root, dropped on 10, could edge just one boundary in his 50-ball stay and Bopara, thrashing around like a drowning man, could not find it at all in his 38-ball stay as England made Williamson, the part-time offspinner, look like Muralitharan.New Zealand started their reply well. Martin Guptill, with unbeaten centuries in his previous two games, looked in fluent form and they raced to 70 for 1 before the end of the 10th over. While Stuart Broad, bowling with impressive pace, had Luke Ronchi caught at mid-on after he was late on an attempted pull, the seamers were, at that stage, proving expensive.The introduction of Tredwell made an immediate impact. He might have been unable to take a first-class wicket so far this season, but he produced a perfect off-break in his first over here to bowl Guptill, pushing forward, through the gate.Tredwell took some punishment later at the hands of the excellent Ross Taylor – who recorded a half-century in every game of this series – but eventually had his man caught on the midwicket fence (Steven Finn, realising he was going to topple over the boundary, throwing the ball to Tim Bresnan in the nick of time) and also had Brendon McCullum caught behind as he tried cut on too full for the stroke.Root also struck in his first over, defeating Williamson’s pull stroke with an off break, Colin Munro fell to his first ball, following one angled across him and, by the time Nathan McCullum was well caught by Broad running back at mid-off, the game was as good as won.New Zealand could leave Trent Bridge secure in the knowledge that they know their side and their method, but this was an evening that belonged to Buttler.