New Zealand v England: third T20 international – live!

3rd over: New Zealand 34-0 (Munro 4, Guptill 29) Mahmood into the attack, and he doesn’t stray straight, giving width instead … and Guptill flays and edge over third man for four … then flicks over midwicket fo fo mo! There may just be runs out there. There are runs out there! England, having filled the off side, see Mahmood offer one on the hips, and shonuff it goes around the corner for four. Mahmood must be feeling slightly unwell but he manages to keep the rest of the over to singles making for 15 from it. Ouch.

2nd over: New Zealand 19-0 (Munro 3, Guptill 15) Tom Curran will open from the other end, which is no doubt inspiring and mortifying in equal measure for sets of brothers the world over. Munro forces his first ball for one, but then Guptill swipes and misses his third, so tucks the fourth off his hips to the fence. And oh dear, Curran is too straight again – not by much – but enough for an inside edge to add four more. Then, to rub it in, the PA plays Franz Ferdinand’s cover of Hava Nagila.

1st over: New Zealand 8-0 (Munro 2, Guptill 6) Curran bowls into the wind, of course he does, and Munro charges him immediately, muscling a single to leg. Guptill adds another, Munro does likewise, and then Guptill takes a step down and carts a decent length ball over midwicket for four, just like that. A leg bye then ends the over, and that’s a good start for the home side.

Lockie Ferguson, one of the stars of the World Cup, will play this match and then swap out for Trent Boult. I wonder, though: I’m absolutely buzzing that this series is happening, but should players be forced to miss cricket because there’s too much of it?

“England were excellent at the beginning overs of the 1st T20I, and excellent at the end overs of the 2nd T20I,” says Abhijato Sensarma. “To complete the trio of phase bowling excellence, is a middle-overs choke going to be the way forward this time?”

Far too obvious, I’d say.

The strength in depth is absolutely rrrrridiculous.

New Zealand: 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Colin Munro, 3 Tim Seifert (wk), 4 Ross Taylor, 5 Colin de Grandhomme, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Tim Southee (capt), 9 Lockie Ferguson, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Blair Tickner.

England: 1 Dawid Malan, 2 Tom Banton, 3 James Vince, 4 Eoin Morgan (capt), 5 Sam Billings (wk), 6 Lewis Gregory, 7 Sam Curran, 8 Tom Curran 9 Saqib Mahmood, 10 Matt Parkinson, 11 Pat Brown.

It’s pretty windy out there, and Banton tells Sky he fancies hitting with it, and the ground looks pretty small. He’s only 20, and is a serious talent for those who’ve not seen him. He whacks it so cleanly, and all around the ground – he’s more Buttler and Pietersen, I’d say, and not just because he’s from Somerset.

“Brown Banton Parkinson Mahmood,” emails Ian Forth, “was a ‘90s Soho advertising agency intent on breaking the mould with their Think Radical mantra. They recently re-imagineered themselves as Raspberry Spaceship and moved into a Clerkenwell Thinkspace, formerly a custard factory.”

I can’t think of anything but this when I see Banton.

My guess is that New Zealand think pace will go out of the pitch, so that by the time England bat, the ball will stick in the surface.

Ch ch changes: for New Zealand, Blair Tickner comes in for Daryl Mitchell, while England make three alterations. In come Banton, Parkinson and Tom Curran, and out go Bairstow, Rashid and Jordan.

Eoin Morgan says he wasn’t sure what to do, so he’s happy to chase. He says England need to “get themselves back in the series”, which is harsh given it’s all-square. His team have spoken about the need to be aggressive, and he says Banton will be that.

Tim Southee says it looks a dry surface.

I’m just watching replays of the catches England dropped in the last match. Dearie me, I’m filling up with nostalgia here. That’s my England.

It’s hard but not hard to see Malan fighting his way back into the Test side. On the one hand, he’s had his chance; on the other, it won’t take too many failures for them to give him another go, if his form demands it, and no one will be surprised if those more failures happen.

This point was also interesting: ‘Ed Smith, the national selector, said on dropping Malan that “it may be his game is better suited to overseas conditions”. But the player, who struck a maiden Test century in Perth during the 2017-18 Ashes series yet averaged 27.8 overall, is not giving up.

Malan said: “What Ed said wasn’t ideal but he’s clarified it to me – my Test record in England isn’t as good as it should be, which is my own fault and no one else’s. But that doesn’t mean I can’t play Test cricket again. It’s up to me to score runs for Yorkshire and keep my name in the hat.”’

Dawid Malan, who we’ll probably see today, is also on the move – from Middlesex to Yorkshire. By the sounds of things, he and Stewie Law didn’t see things quite the same way.

England team news: Banton plays, likewise Matt Parkinson, the latest leggie off the fabled England production line.

I absolutely love this series. Cricket, where previously there was none, at a ludicrous UK hour, featuring all manner of young tyro. By the sounds of things, today will see Tom Banton make his debut, Saqib Mahmood make his second appearance and Pat Brown his third. I cannot wait to see these lads work.

New Zealand, meanwhile, will be New Zealand, and for that we can all be thankful – even in the absence of Kane Williamson and Trent Boult. They don’t have anything like the depth or firepower that England have, but their essential, elemental New Zealandness will most likely compensate for that. The five-match series is currently tied at 1-1.

Play: 1am GMT, 2pm local time.