AUCKLAND — England captain Alastair Cook praised his opening bowlers after his team secured a 2-1 win against New Zealand in the one-day international series. The tourists dismissed the Kiwis for 185 in Auckland and won by five wickets with 75 balls to spare.
— BBC Sport
Steven Finn took 3-27 with his shorter run-up and Cook said: “He’s bowling well as well as I’ve seen him bowl.
“We’re going to have to do it again in the Test series because the New Zealanders are very dangerous players.”
Having also won the Twenty20 series 2-1, England now focus on a three-match Test series which begins in Dunedin on March 6 and Cook added: “If we’re off our game they’re going to punish us.”
Asked whether victory in both shorter forms gives England a psychological advantage he said: “I don’t know about that, if you have lost the one-day series you’ll be saying it’s a different format and you forget about it, but we’ll take a lot from this, we learned a lot about the Kiwis and they probably learned a lot about us as well.
“But our opening bowlers have had a lot of success against them and that can only hold us in good stead.”
The deciding 50-over match was surprisingly low-scoring on the small Eden Park ground, Finn and Anderson reducing New Zealand to 11-3 in the eighth over. Cook said: “It was a good toss to win because of what it gives you later, but we were outstanding with that new ball again.
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“Finny got the wickets and with Jimmy as well, for 15 overs we had an exceptionally high standard of bowling and put the Kiwis under a lot of pressure.”
