England will head to the five-test Ashes series in Australia low on form and confidence after being bowled out for 222 in a two-wicket loss to New Zealand in the third one-day international Saturday and a 3-0 series defeat.
New Zealand was desperate at the end, with two wickets remaining and 28 runs still needed to win. But Zak Foulkes with 14 not out and Blair Tickner, with an unbeaten 18, saw New Zealand home with 32 balls to spare and a total of 226-8.
New Zealand won the first match by four wickets and the second by five wickets.
England captain Harry Brook bowled out Jofra Archer, Brydon Carse and Jamie Overton, leaving Sam Curran and Adil Rashid to bowl the critical final overs.
The problem for England was its batting. For the third time in the three-match series, England was bowled out inside 50 overs as its top order faltered against quick and accurate swing bowling.
New Zealand’s run chase was impeded by two runouts at the non-striker’s end but Daryl Mitchell’s 44 took it close to victory.
Overton had scores of 46 and 42 in the first two matches of the series and has been outstanding batting at No. 8, outshining England’s specialist batters. He is unavailable for the Ashes, having chosen not to play test cricket.
On Saturday, England slumped to 44-4 at the end of the first 10-over power play before being saved by the middle and lower order.
“That’s one thing we’ve spoken about. We didn’t get big enough scores for us to be able to defend them and to give the bowlers a big enough chances to win us the games,” Brook said. “We’ll go back, we’ll take the learnings we’ve made from this trip here and we’ll try our best to be better in the future.”
Jamie Smith, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jacob Bethell will all head to Australia with few runs under their belt.
Smith was out for 5 Saturday, Duckett for 8, Root for 2, Bethell for 11 and Brook, who has been England’s mainstay in the series, was dismissed for 6. Brook scored 175 runs in his three innings in the series.
The late resistance came first from Jos Buttler who made 38 and put on 53 in a partnership for the sixth wicket with Sam Curran (17) which more than doubled England’s total.
Overton and Brydon Carse then put on 58 for the eighth wicket. Carse hit four sixes in his 36 while Overton reached his half century from 50 balls with consecutive fours off Blair Tickner. He hit 10 fours and two sixes.
England bowled well in defense of an inadequate total, though Jofra Archer conceded 53 runs from 10 overs without taking a wicket. His fifth over cost 24 runs.
Overton took 2-32 to add to his outstanding batting performance.
