• New Zealand v England, 1st T20, Auckland

Broad: Record-setting England 'fantastic'

Stuart Broad: A good toss to lose © Getty Images

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Stuart Broad, England's captain, has said the 40-run win over New Zealand in Auckland was the team's best performance under his leadership. Broad claimed his first four-wicket haul in international T20 and England recorded their highest total in the format, hitting 15 sixes along the way, to set up a comprehensive win and take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Asked if it was the most accomplished England display he could remember, Broad said: "Certainly that I've captained. Looking back to the 2010 World Twenty20, which we won, we were fantastic throughout that tournament, but to go and get a record score of 214, that's the exciting thing with this team, to have that mindset to go and get such a high score.

"A lot of the time you think 170, 180 is a good score. To go and get such a high score and defend it comprehensively, we're delighted with that."

Broad's 4 for 24 helped him go past Graeme Swann to become England's leading wicket-taker in T20s with 52. The bowlers adjusted well to the challenge of the short straight boundaries at Eden Park and Broad said that the success of the batsmen after being sent in had helped determine England's strategy.

"The freedom the guys played with the bat set us up brilliantly today," Broad said. "To lose the toss and then go and set our record score as an England batting line-up is fantastic. I think we learned a lot from batting on it first, knowing what we could bang out a heavy length, back of a length, and take the pace off to get the guys hitting to the bigger boundaries. It was probably not a bad toss to lose."

Brendon McCullum, New Zealand's captain, conceded after the game that his side would have to improve ahead of the second T20 in Hamilton on Tuesday. New Zealand missed several chances in the field, setting the tone for a heavy defeat, their sixth in seven T20 internationals against England.

"We were outplayed today by a far better team on the day," McCullum said. "We missed our basics: batting, bowling, in the field. We've got another game in a few days and we need to make sure we rectify those errors. It was a really poor day in the field. I think we've dropped five catches. You just can't afford to that, not in any format of the game, let alone T20. Credit goes to England for the way they played. We've just got to bounce back from this."

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