Ego-less onslaught shows England at their white-ball best

When the going's good, this England team is great.

The common critique of Harry Brook's team, and Jos Buttler's before him, is that they are flat-track bullies. The best in the world when the odds are in their favour but one-dimensional when they are not.

The opening T20I at Christchurch hinted towards that. They slipped to 81 for 5 on a wicket that was lively, only to be bailed out by Sam Curran and New Zealand's lasagne hands. A total of 153 may look under par, but at the lowest scoring ground in the country, where the average run rate is 7.8 (aka, a final score of 156), it was a step in the right direction for a team aiming to add brains to their brawn.

Cut to 48 hours later and, while the match was on the same wicket, it was a different pitch. Less live grass plus two days of sun had both captains scratching their heads at what to do. Mitchell Santner said bowl, but wasn't sure.

"We'll see if there's anything there," Santner said at the toss. "And if there's not it might be more of a challenge."

It was more of a challenge.

England's 236 for 4 blitzed the previous highest score at Hagley Oval by over 30 runs. In the history of international T20 cricket at the venue there had only ever been four scores above 170. All things considered, this was an anomalous performance. And a close-to-perfect one at that.

"The boundaries are way back," Curran said after the first match. "A couple of balls you smack and it goes nowhere."

But while England did pack their biceps, striking ten sixes, they also packed their running shoes, scampering 16 twos across the innings. Brook and Phil Salt's partnership cruised along in fifth gear but took different forms. The boundary may be big, but that means the outfield is too.

"He's very good at playing the field," Santner explained after the match. "Both him and Salt were very smart using the wind and were able to run hard and hit the pockets on the big side. I think they had 20-something twos (16) and when it's tough to find dots, when you go two, then four, you're leaking."

Brook had spoken about this innings before he played it. Ahead of the series he explained his "disappointment" at his white-ball returns. For all the glamour of his roly-poly ramp shots in the Hundred, they weren't where he believed his strengths lied. He wanted to stand there. And hit straight.

"That's one goal for me this series," he said, one day out from the first match. "Just to try and play on instinct as much as possible."

All five of Brook's sixes came from the City End, where the leg-side was to the shorter boundary and had the wind in assistance. Two landed in the stands, one dropped onto the roof, and two went over it.

Salt had been on 39 off 21 when Brook arrived at the crease. But when it became clear Brook was the man of the moment his strike-rate slowed as he focused on getting his captain back on strike. From his next 35 balls he made just 46 runs but England continued to motor.

Salt is on four T20I centuries. Only Glenn Maxwell and Rohit Sharma have five, a stat of which Salt is aware, but one he put to one side.

"The difference between me going on and getting that score or not was getting Brooky on strike," he said afterwards. "And, 100 times over, I'd like to be at the other end watching that again.

"That's batting, isn't it? You have to take the ego out of it."

This was as complete a performance as England could have hoped for. A coach's dream, in which all parties played their role. Two batters batted big, and those that didn't, did so quickly. All of Jacob Bethell (24), Tom Banton (29*) and Sam Curran (8*) struck at above 200.

"It's warming to be able to say 'lads, you go do your thing'," was Brook's conclusion at the close.

England's perfect day extended to ball in hand as well. Brydon Carse took two up top, before the spin duo of Liam Dawson and Adil Rashid killed the game in the middle. Dawson bowled four through the middle, counterintuitively bowling to New Zealand's left-hand-heavy middle order to the shorter side, but keeping his line wide. Until Santner got a hold of him in his final over, it worked. After 3.4 overs his figures were 2 for 18. Somehow, his final two legal deliveries conceded 20 runs. We'll brush over that bit.

"Dawson bowling to the short side," Santner said afterwards. "I thought that was very smart, keeping it off the batsman."

Even Rashid's four-fer, all of which were caught in the deep, came with thought attached, as those on the large square boundaries were instructed to settle five or ten metres in from the rope.

"That's something we spoke about," Brook said of his fielders roaming around. "There's a lot of balls plinked into the outfield and if our fielders were on the rope they're probably not carrying. So that's another positive move about taking wickets."

So much of T20 cricket comes down to volatility. One player executing on the day and wrenching the match in one direction or the other. England's joy this evening will be their success at the bits that are repeatable. Plans were made. And plans were executed.

"That's part of being a team," Salt concluded. "You have to take the ego out of it. Everything is team first and team orientated. And long may that continue."