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New Zealand v England: Twenty20 tri-series

Morgan, who played the opening match of the series against Australia, then missed two matches with a groin strain, returned to reclaim the captaincy from Jos Buttler and produce a Man of the Match performance.

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Stokes, 26, whose last involvement with England was nearly five months ago, could have taken a recovery day but donned an orange bib to referee the warm-up football match, played a full part in the team’s stretches and fielding drills and later took to the nets for a bat.

Set a mammoth 244 to win on Friday night, Australia pulled off the biggest chase in a T20 worldwide to defeat New Zealand by five wickets at Auckland’s Eden Park. And as I said, we might have deflated the Kiwi boys the other night. In the tournament, Australia already secured their position at final by winning all the matches.

Hesson was responding to comments from England coach Trevor Bayliss who has called for Twenty20 cricket to be removed from the global schedule and confined to franchise tournaments such as the Indian Premier League or Australia’s Big Bash League.

Despite his involvement, England coach Trevor Bayliss has insisted Stokes faces a series of assessments before he can be cleared to play in Sunday’s opener with New Zealand.

“I wouldn’t play T20 internationals”, Bayliss told Sky Sports.

But the gamble backfired as the wicket held up and New Zealand’s batsmen finally hit their stride after three straight T20 losses.

Bayliss added: “If we continue putting so many games, there will be a certain amount of blow-out not just with players, but with coaches as well”.

Captain Eoin Morgan stroked an unbeaten 80 off 46 balls to take England’s total to 194/7. We got off to a reasonable start. We played terribly so far in the tri-series.

Admittedly, star power is important – a factor that gives the teams below India and England some advantage.

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Overton was Somerset’s leading wicket taker in the 2017 Royal London One-Day Cup campaign, taking 16 scalps at 24.06 with an economy rate of just over six runs an over. It’s probably been the biggest changes to a team that we have had but you obviously go through periods where it doesn’t go as well as you would like.

New Zealand will face Australia in the final