Stuart Broad got two crucial wickets for England in the last match of the ODI series against New Zealand yesterday.
Broad had not played in the first two matches of the series because of his shin injury. He managed to recover in time for the third match.
Broad was given the new ball in the absence of James Anderson and he made the most of it.
He bowled with good pace and created problems for the Kiwi batsmen from his very first over. He could have got the wicket of Luke Ronchi on the second ball of his spell, but, Eoin Morgan at Backward point dropped an easy catch.
However, Broad eventually managed to dismiss Ronchi on the last ball of his third over. It was a quick, short pitched delivery which got big on Ronchi. The Kiwi wicketkeeper tried to pull it, but, ended up slicing it to mid on. Jonathan Trott didn’t make any mistake there.
Broad bowled only 4 overs in his opening spell in which he gave away 37 runs. He came back to bowl again in the 23rd over and he got a wicket in that spell too. He dismissed James Franklin at the score of 7.
It was a good length delivery which was going across Franklin. The tall leftie tried to punch it and got an outside edge. The ball flew to gully where the English skipper Alastair Cook had positioned himself. He took a sharp catch and Broad got his second wicket.
After Franklin’s dismissal, England’s victory was not looking far away. But, Ross Taylor played sensibly with the lower order batsmen and kept New Zealand in the game.
However, Taylor got out in the form of 9th wicket at the score of 71 and that was the final nail in the coffin.
Steven Finn dismissed the last man Mitchell McClenaghan in the 47th over and secured England’s win.