Stuart Broad takes blame as England lose T20 to New Zealand

Published on 13/02/2013 00:00

ENGLAND captain Stuart Broad blamed himself twice for the 55-run defeat to New Zealand.

Broad’s opposite number Brendon McCullum led the way as the hosts levelled the three-match Twenty20 series 1-1, hitting 74 from 38 balls in New Zealand’s 192 for six.

Mitchell McClenaghan then took two early wickets to undermine England’s run chase. Ian Butler had figures of two for nine and then James Franklin grabbed four for 15 late on.

Jos Buttler (54) continued his fine form with a half-century from only 28 balls for England, but could only narrow the margin of defeat.

Broad followed his career-best four for 24 in Saturday’s opening win in Auckland with his worst of none for 53. He acknowledged afterwards that his own bowling was not up to scratch – and that he regretted his decision to put New Zealand in.

Broad said: “We got certain parts of the game wrong tonight and, in such a short format, you can’t afford to do that. ‘Baz’ [McCullum] played fantastically well – anyone who can get 70 odd off 30 balls has played a fantastic knock. After 15 or 16 overs, I thought we were really in the game. But I got it slightly wrong at the end and it was always going to be a tough ask.”

England ended up 137 all out, despite Buttler’s best efforts, after stumbling to nine for two and then 80 for seven.