The five shiniest, brightest stars in England v New Zealand Cricket Series

The recently concluded ODI series in England between the hosts and the world cup finalists, New Zealand, precisely depicted the way the One day game is changing. The English who were heavily criticized and also labelled ‘prehistoric’ for their dreadful world cup performance seemed to have found new life and ended up scoring 400 in a one day game and chased down 350 in the same series. These hitherto unheard of fears sealed a historic series win over the Kiwis and and also notched up home wins for England for the first time in almost six years.

However, New Zealand too had their moments throughout the series and looked good to win it after the 3rd ODI at Southampton but the English fought back in spectacular fashion.

Here’s a look at five individuals who had their say big time in this thrilling series.

5. Ross Taylor

A batsman who was relatively unsettled in recent times in  limited overs cricket came around in this series to score as many as 375 runs at staggering average of 93.75 striking at 95.90, His back to back  match winning hundreds at the Oval and Southampton  proved the priceless asset he is to country’s success. He also partnered with Kane Williamson to build those massive record partnerships making the series phenomenally exciting. Taylor showed why form is temporary and class is permanent.

4. Ben Stokes

The New Zealand born England all rounder was probably the pick of the performers  playing a critical role in England’s remarkable turnaround of fortunes in the 50 over format of the game. Stokes scored a 142 runs in 5 outings for his country at an average of 35.50, highest of 68 batting at number 5, but most importantly provided his team the impetus towards scoring or chasing massive totals by striking at 136.53. His contributions also came with the ball  as he emerged as the highest wicket taker of the tournament with 9 wickets. Stokes hailed as the new Botham lived up to his potential and promises more glory for English cricket.

3. Steven Finn

The lanky Steven Finn featuring in this list is itself a big achievement in itself given the nature of the series he has bowled in. He emerged as the second highest wicket taker in the batsmen dominated series with 8 wickets at an average of 35 and a healthy economy of 6.02 for this series. But what Finn did well was bowling at the start to the rampaging Brendon McCullum and coming out on top on quite a few occasions. He also combined well to partnering different bowlers throughout the series given the injuries in the English camp and later with Mark Wood to form a formidable opening attack for the English in the One dayers.

2. Kane Williamson

The rock solid Kane Williamson showed yet again why he is one of the best in the business , emerging as the highest run-getter of the series with 396 of them at a 79.20 that too at 102.48 per hundred deliveries. He was rightly adjudged Man of the Series which had quite a few competitors. Kane adjusted phenomenally from test series where survival was the motive to attacking ceaselessly in the One dayers. The Run Machine walked out time and again in the series, holding up an end but also scoring quickly in the process for the Kiwis to help them amass those big totals.

1.  Eoin Morgan

The English Captain had a big say in the outcome of the series with  scores of 0, 113, 71, 88, and 50, Morgan turned it around for his adopted country and lead from the front for the major part of the series with the bat. Given that the Irishman had a tough start to his captaincy career, with a horror show in the world cup down under, Morgan  came around beautifully to make England a competitive One day side. His batting was key to England’s fortunes, amassing 322 runs in the series at 64.40, striking at 124.80, belting 16 sixes in the process, his match winning 113 of 82  balls helped his side chase 350 with 6 overs to spare and  his captaincy too worked well in shaping his team’s resurgence.