New Zealand levelled the T20 series in Canterbury after recovering from a disastrous start to set England 171; and then bowling well enough to strangle England’s reply, leaving the hosts 14 short at the end.

England left Sophie Ecclestone on the bench, after poor outings in Cardiff and Derby. England said she had a “tight quad”, but it wasn’t tight enough to stop her doing keepie-uppies with a rainbow football on the outfield before the game, so… make of that what you will! Surprisingly though it wasn’t like-for-like Tilly Corteen-Coleman who came into the side but Issy Wong, England opting for a second quick bowler on a blisteringly-hot day in Canterbury.

In a clear indication of England’s opening strategy for the World Cup, Linsey Smith took the new ball alongside Lauren Bell, and with Bell having already removed Izzy Gaze (somehow beaten for pace, even though it didn’t look that quick) Smith added Georgia Plimmer and Melie Kerr, both for golden ducks, to her little black book. Although the dismissals looked very different – Plimmer caught and bowled; Kerr LBW – both gave themselves away by playing across the line to balls that zipped-on, with Plimmer getting in a tangle trying to adjust, and Kerr just missing it completely.

With Brooke Halliday holing-out to a kamikaze slog, New Zealand were 11-4 and certain members of the press (not us, I hasten to add!) were checking the National Rail website for early train times. This, presumably, is what crashed the internet in the press box, leaving everyone (including the ECB’s own Social Media staff) faffing around having to hotspot to their phones, whilst the staff here advised us to try using an ethernet cable!! Combined with a somewhat obscured view of the field of play from the press seats, it wasn’t the best experience we’ve had trying to cover a match.

Meanwhile on the field, Maddy Green and Sophie Devine set about climbing the mountain in front of them with a 159-run partnership at a Strike Rate of 162, that rather exposed the gulf in class between England’s opening bowlers and the rest. Lauren Bell and Linsey Smith are up there with the best in the world; Freya Kemp and Dani Gibson are not in the same league and were put firmly in their place by Devine and Green.

Sophie Devine was ultimately run out off the final ball, but not before she had reached 71 off 48 balls to lift New Zealand to 170 – a total very-much towards the upper end of a typical total in T20s between the top sides in recent years.

The key to New Zealand’s win was that final “Death” phase, where they added an additional 56 runs, which ultimately England failed to match. Devine’s six 6s gave New Zealand the oomph they needed at the moment they needed it.

England started pretty much as they had in Derby, with Sophia Dunkley setting off at a million miles-an-hour, and Capsey continuing the more measured approach that she has adopted lately. Dunkley fared better than she had in the first match of the series, actually connecting with a couple of balls, and the results were better – 26 off 18 balls isn’t Off With Her Head territory. But 8 dots feels like quite a lot, and a Strike Rate of 144 is what England needed at a minimum – it did little to take the pressure off anyone else.

Capsey and Maia Bouchier combined for England’s biggest partnership, and they did the hard yards of getting England into a position from where they could have pushed on, but Capsey’s dismissal on the stroke of the halfway mark left things hanging in the balance, with the two sides exactly neck-and-neck on the WinHer Win Predictor.

Heather Knight showed glimpses of her old self and worked hard running between the wickets. At one point, a member of the crowd growled out: “Come on Heather!” in a voice I felt like I remembered from days gone by. I’m not 100% certain it was her dad, but it sounded awfully like him, willing her to roll back the years. But she couldn’t quite do it; and while England could afford to let things drift a little in the Early Middle phase, in the Late Middle they could not. With Knight and Bouchier dismissed in consecutive balls going into the Death phase, it left Freya Kemp and Danni “$6 Million Dollar Woman” Gibson too much to do.

As the afternoon’s heat began to finally wane, so too did England; and New Zealand’s bowlers held their nerve sufficiently to close out the win.

What we’ve seen so far in this series is that England are professional enough to get those regulation wins which will get you through 75% of the time – in the past 4 years, England have won 47 of 65 T20s; but the big, high-pressure, high-scoring games like today are where they fall short. They are the games they need to be winning if they want to win a World Cup. With Danni Wyatt-Hodge and (hopefully) Nat Sciver-Brunt back for the World Cup, England will have a bit of extra oomph at the World Cup compared to today. They are going to need it; because the World Cup will be oomph or bust.