Published Tue, May 11 10 01:07 AM
Gros Islet (St Lucia), May 10 (PTI) New Zealand rode on cameos from Ross Taylor, Brendon McCullum and Scott Styris to post a modest 149 for six against England in their last Super Eight stage match of the Twenty20 World Cup here today. In the face of England''s disciplined attack, McCullum (33 off 32 balls) was not at his attacking best and it was the 62-run fourth wicket partnership between Ross Taylor (44) and Scott Styris (31) which turned out to be the cornerstone of the Kiwi innings. New Zealand''s was a rather sluggish start despite two stroke-makers -- McCullum and Jesse Ryder (9) -- opening the innings after skipper Daniel Vettori had won the toss and opted to bat first in a do-or-die match. The opening stand had yielded 30 runs when Tim Bresnan castled Ryder in the fifth over. McCullum tried to assert himself but timing was not always perfect and he struggled to find gaps, partly because of his penchant to hit the ball too hard. The desperation to break loose grew as the English bowlers maintained a stifling line and length and Graeme Swann dealt a double blow in successive overs to peg back the Kiwis. The off-spinner first induced a fatal slog-sweep from Raymond in his second over and returned to have McCullum caught in the deep. Styris joined Taylor in the middle and the duo stepped on gas, helping themselves to some welcome boundaries. Taylor hit Swann out of the ground, while Styris cleared the ropes off a Ryan Sidebottom delivery before Stuart Broad cut short his 19-ball stay. Taylor hit Sidebottom for a six in the penultimate over before holing out in the next ball and exit after a 33-ball cameo and New Zeland eventually halted just before the 150-mark.
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