By BV Swagath
New Zealand bounced back strongly to beat England in the 2nd T20I at the Seddon Park in Hamilton to level the 3-match series 1-1. England who crushed the hosts by 40 runs in the opening T20I at Auckland were hammered by 55 runs this evening at Hamilton.
Asked to bat first after losing the toss, New Zealand got off to a dream start of 75 from the openers in 8.2 overs. Newbie Hamish Rutherford was impressive with his 27-ball 40 (with a four and 3 sixes) while Martin Guptill scored 47 from 31 balls (with 4 fours and 2 sixes). Skipper Brendon McCullum made best use of the opening stand to score a scintillating 74 from 38 balls with 6 fours and 5 sixes. As a result, the Kiwis piled up 192 for 6. Jade Dernbach claimed 3 for 38 while Luke Wright took 2 for 24 for the hosts.
England had a disastrous start chasing the tall target as they slipped to 24 for 3 inside 4 overs and never could recover after that. Jos Buttler smashed a 30-ball 54 (with 9 fours and a six) to bring some sort of respectability to England who were bowled out for 137 in 19.3 overs. James Franklin took 4 for 15 in 3.3 overs but the real star of the Kiwi bowling was comeback man Ian Buttler bowled a great spell of 4-0-9-2.
