Ben Stokes, bowlers help England crush NZ to take 2-1 lead

Ben Stokes' masterpiece and a masterful bowling display helped England defeat New Zealand by 181 runs at the Kennington Oval, giving them a 2-1 lead in the four-match ODI series.

The pursuit by New Zealand got off to a shaky start as Chris Woakes covered for Will Young, who nicked off to Buttler. It was officially a top-order collapse when Nicholls hurled one to Curran at deep midwicket, following Conway, who was caught ahead by Topley. Latham was the second man out, dismissed by Chris Woakes, leaving New Zealand with just two specialist batters.

Daryl Mitchell put up some resistance, but Sam Curran quickly took advantage of him, leaving New Zealand at 70-5 needing 299 more runs to win. After fighting alone and scoring an impressive fifty, Glenn Phillips forged important alliances with Kyle Jamieson and Rachin Ravindra.

With three wickets remaining, Liam Livingstone entered the attack and snared up the dangerous Phillips before tidying up the tail to complete the job with ease.

Earlier, Jonny Bairstow was dismissed off the first ball as England was selected to bat first by New Zealand. Soon after, Joe Root continued his streak of low scores against New Zealand, and England was in serious difficulty from the start.

At that point, Ben Stokes and Dawid Malan combined for a 199-run partnership; the latter was removed four runs short of a century. Nevertheless, Stokes went on to record the highest ODI score ever by an English cricket player with 182.

Before a lower-order collapse saw England all out for 368 with eleven balls remaining, Stokes and Buttler put up 78 off 46 balls. But because to a masterful bowling effort by England, the total proved to be more than sufficient in the end, as they won the four-match series 2-1.

Brief Scores: England 368 all-outin 48.1 overs (Ben Stokes 182, Dawid Malan 96, Trent Boult 5-51) vs. New Zealand 187 all-out(Glenn Phillips 72, Liam Livingstone 3-16, Chris Woakes 3-31) by 181 runs