Dawid Malan brought up his fifth century while Moeen Ali picked up figures of 4/50 in his ten-over spell as England beat New Zealand by a 100-run margin in the fourth and final ODI at the home of cricket, Lord’s. With this victory, the home side won their third consecutive match to seal the series 3-1.
Talking about how the game panned out, skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and elected to bat first. Jonny Bairstow got dismissed for 13 while Joe Root’s poor form continued as he amassed 29 off 40. The right-handed batter managed to score just 39 runs in his four outings in the series.
England’s innings were all about Malan, who slammed 127 off 114, including 14 fours and three maximums. Buttler and Liam Livingstone mustered 36 and 28 runs, respectively while the lower order also chipped in with useful contributions as England posted a big total of 311/9 on the board in their allotted 20 overs.
Rachin Ravindra was the pick of the New Zealand bowlers for his spell of 4/60 in ten overs. In reply, openers Will Young and Devon Conway scored 24 and 7 runs, respectively. Henry Nicholls played a knock of 41 off 48 while Daryl Mitchell got dismissed for just four. Ravindra backed up his bowling performance by contributing with the bat as well as he smashed 61 off 48 but the Kiwis never really looked like chasing down their target.
Barring Reece Topley, all the England bowlers picked up at least a wicket as they dismissed the visitors for 211 in 38.2 overs. For his magnificent century, Malan won the Player of the Match award. The left-handed opener also grabbed the Player of the Series award for amassing 277 runs in three innings.
Meanwhile, here are some of the important stats and numbers from the 4th ODI between England and New Zealand:
127 – Dawid Malan registered his second-highest score of 127 in ODIs. His best score of 134 came against Australia in Adelaide in the year 2022.
92.33 – Malan smashed 277 runs in three innings at a solid average of 92.33 and a strike-rate of 105.72 with one century and two fifties in the just-concluded ODI series against New Zealand.
2 – Rachin Rachindra became the second New Zealand player to pick four or more wickets and score a fifty in the same ODI match. Ravindra snared four scalps for 60 runs and smashed 61 off 48. Scott Styris took 6/25 and racked up an unbeaten 63 against West Indies in 2002.
1046 – Malan reached the landmark of 1000 runs in the 50-overs format.
4/50 – Moeen Ali recorded his second-best ODI figures of 4/50. His best spell of 4/46 came against Australia in Manchester in 2018.
39 – Joe Root managed to score only 39 runs in four innings at a poor average of 9.75 and with the highest score of 29 in this ODI series.
61.52 – Left-handed batter Malan has scored 1046 runs in 21 innings at an average of 61.52 with five centuries and five fifties in his ODI career so far.
21 – Malan became the joint-second fastest player for England to complete 1000 runs in 21 innings. Jonathan Trott also achieved the feat in as many innings. Kevin Pietersen is at the top for reaching the milestone in 20 innings.