ESPNCRICINFO) – England’s rejigged T20I team powered out of their mothballs with a crushing seven-wicket victory under the floodlights at Chester-le-Street, as they hunted down a sub-par target of 140 with six full overs to spare.

A fine home-town debut from the seamer Brydon Carse denied New Zealand any momentum despite a misleadingly run-laden first over from Finn Allen, whereupon a brace of forceful knocks from Dawid Malan and the inevitable Harry Brook allowed Jos Buttler to sit back in the dressing-room with his feet up, resting up for more meaningful contests to come.
In their first white-ball outing since the tour of Bangladesh in March, England showed once again that their depth of options is second-to-none in the world game. Despite losing two prospective fast-bowling debutants, Josh Tongue and John Turner, to injury, and resting a third, Gus Atkinson, for later in the series, England’s line was led instead by Carse and the left-armer Luke Wood, who claimed three wickets apiece.

In reply England never looked like letting their grip on the contest slip, despite the first-over loss of Jonny Bairstow, and once Malan had anchored the chase with his 17th fifty-plus score in 56 T20I innings, Brook and Liam Livingstone, with a huge blow for six over deep midwicket, closed out the chase in short order.
False dawn in the powerplay

Allen’s most recent on-field act, in the green of Southern Brave, had been to slam 69 from 38 balls in a riotous (but unsuccessful) opening onslaught in last week’s Hundred Eliminator. And so the die seemed to have been cast when he climbed into a massive yahoo at Wood’s second delivery of the match. He didn’t connect on that occasion, but each of the next three flew out of the park – one down the ground, two high over midwicket – in an apparent signal of another powerplay charge.
What followed, however, was a near-complete lockdown from England’s new-look seam attack. Sam Curran applied the handbrake with a five-run second over before the debutant Carse conceded a solitary run off the bat with his relentless deck-thumping approach.

A switch of ends for Wood then paid early dividends as Devon Conway snicked a drive with no footwork to fall for 3 from 8, and after Carse had burst through Allen’s defence with an 87mph leg-stump-seeker, Wood made it two in three overs as Tim Seifert was suckered by the angle from round the wicket to lose his off stump for 9.
New Zealand’s powerplay thus amounted to 18 for 0 from three balls, and 20 for 3 from the remaining 33, to set in motion a batting display that was never able to recover any poise.
Spin turns the screw

With the introduction of spin in the seventh over, New Zealand’s innings suffered a similar false dawn. Mark Chapman picked Adil Rashid’s first-ball leg-break and smoked him over midwicket for six… but his team managed just five more runs in the next nine before Moeen Ali, a scourge of left-handers, bowled Chapman with a beauty that held its line from round the wicket to take the top of off stump.

At 49 for 4, New Zealand were once again in need of a big performance from Daryl Mitchell, but on this occasion, even his long levers couldn’t turn the tide. Liam Livingstone entered the attack with a startlingly sharp leg-break that leapt past Mitchell’s edge, and – seemingly spooked – Mitchell climbed through the line of his very next ball, but could only pick out Brook on the long-off boundary. Rashid was then rewarded for an unremarkably excellent three-over spell with the soft dismissal of Mitchell Santner, who toe-ended a cut to point.
Carse applies the coup de grace

Thereafter, it was all about the scramble to the bottom of the innings. Glenn Phillips was New Zealand’s best hope of a competitive total, but his subdued 41 from 38 was ended by the sharpest take of the innings, as Curran in the covers read the fade on a sliced drive at a Wood slower ball, and leapt to his left to cling on in both hands.
Adam Milne and Ish Sodhi then landed a six apiece off consecutive balls to at least hoist England’s target past a run a ball, but Carse was on hand to shut down the innings in style. His first ball of the 20th over was an inch-perfect off-cutter, on that hard in-between length that skidded past Milne’s wipe to leg; his fifth was fired into the toes, demanding that Sodhi took on the longest boundary, and he duly failed.

Carse had opened his account with 1 for 3 in his first two overs. Now he closed the innings down with 3 for 23 all told, his best in all T20s, and delivered with that familiar pitch-battering poise that Liam Plunkett once brought to England’s white-ball attack. For a man who wasn’t initially picked for this T20I squad, it was quite the way to celebrate becoming England’s 100th cap in the format.