Hales, Roy star in England win

MUMBAI: In their previous practice match at the Wankhede Stadium on Thursday, New Zealand had recorded a convincing 74-run win over Sri Lanka. But, they enjoyed no such luck against England when the two sides met at the same venue on Saturday, in another practice game in the lead up to the World T20, with Eoin Morgan & Co. coasting to a comfortable six-wicket win, even though they were up against a stiff 170-run target.
Openers Jason Roy (55 runs, 36 balls, 7x4, 2x6) and Alex Hales (44 runs, 36 balls, 5x4) put on 77 runs at the top of the order in only 8.2 overs to set up the platform for a perfect chase.England looked in a spot of bother at the end of the 16th over, needing 42 runs off the final 24 deliveries, but the middle-order batsmen managed to find the occasional boundary to ensure things did not get out of hand.
Earlier, skipper Kane Williamson hit a whirlwind 63 off 39 balls to help his side reach 169-8 in their 20 overs. His knock included nine boundaries and a six. Nevertheless, the Kiwis would have hoped for a far taller score, given the fact that they had reached 101-2 off the first 10 overs. Leg-spinner Adil Rashid was the pick of the bowlers, taking 3-15. More importantly, he was the one responsible for checking the flow of runs.
Brief scores: New Zealand 169-8 in 20 overs (Kane Williamson 63, Ross Taylor 19; Adil Rashid 3-15, Reece Topley 2-39) lost to England 170-4 (Jason Roy 55, Alex Hales 44, Eoin Morgan 20, Jos Buttler 24*; Nathan McCullum 2-25, Mitchel Santner 2-24).