Cricket: Black Caps v England, New Zealand bounce back to win third Twenty20 to stay alive in series

New Zealand's Glenn Phillips dives at the boundary to save a six from England's Dawid Malan during the third T20 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. Photo / AP

What a way to bounce back. After suffering their heaviest Twenty20 defeat to England two days ago, the Black Caps have responded with their largest win over their rivals with a 74-run victory in the third match at Edgbaston.

The Black Caps were down and almost out in the series after losing the opening two encounters including a 95-run defeat in Manchester, their loss biggest in terms of runs against England. But they’ve ensured a shot at a shared series after an impressive batting display with two players largely responsible.

Finn Allen’s 53-ball 83 at the top of the order along with 69 from 34 balls from Glenn Phillips helped New Zealand score 202-5 and set England an imposing target to take a 3-0 lead in the four-match series.

Between them, Allen and Phillips hit 11 sixes and put on 88 for the third wicket as New Zealand passed the 200 mark for the 18th time in T20s - five of which have been in the last 15 months.

Allen hit three consecutive sixes off Adil Rashid in the 15th over and eyed his second T20 century before being bowled by Luke Wood with three overs remaining in the innings. Phillips continued the destruction of the England bowling attack and along with late boundaries from Mark Chapman and Daryl Mitchell, saw New Zealand set the second-highest target at the ground.

England’s big hitters were blunted by some disciplined bowling, with only Jos Buttler (40 off 21 balls) making any real headway as his world champion team was dismissed with nine balls remaining having always been well behind the required run rate.

Fit-again pacer Kyle Jamieson had impressive figures of 3-23 in four overs, along with spinner Ish Sodhi (3-33).

“Much better in all three areas, in a style we expect to see from NZ,” Black Caps skipper Southee said after the win. “Finn’s innings allowed people to bat around him and GP’s [Glenn Phillips] innings on a wicket like that showed his class. First few overs were crucial and allowed the spinners to come through the middle,” he added.

Southee had 2-30 as he edges closer (144 wickets) to becoming the first player to take 150 wickets in all three formats.

The fourth and final T20 is at Trent Bridge on Wednesday NZT, before the teams play four one-day internationals to warm up for the 50-over Cricket World Cup starting next month.

England won the first T20 by seven wickets on Thursday and the second match by 95 runs on Saturday.