Stuart Broad hailed England's best Twenty20 performance under his captaincy after they made a record score to beat New Zealand by 40 runs in Auckland.

England made 214 for seven as they took advantage of Eden Park's short boundaries to pile up the sixes, and then contained the hosts comfortably to win the first of this three-match series.

Asked if it was the best England T20 performance he could remember, Broad said: ''Certainly that I've captained.

''Looking back to the 2010 World Cup where we won we were fantastic throughout that tournament, but to go and get a record score of 214, that's the exciting thing in the 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.''

Luke Wright starred with bat and ball, making 42 and then taking two for 29, while Eoin Morgan was the top-scorer with 46 and Broad collected four for 24.

Those wickets took Broad to 52 T20 wickets for England, putting him at the top of the all-time charts.

''I didn't know that,'' he said. ''The freedom the guys played with with the bat set us up brilliantly today. 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.''

England clearly came in with a game plan to try to hit the ball straight back down the ground, taking advantage of the 60-yard carry to rack up the score.

Wright, who had four of England's 15 maximums, said: ''It was pretty much perfect and how we wanted to play. We knew we had to get a big score on the board. To get 200 and then to bowl like that was the most pleasing of all.

''I suppose it's a lesson for when we get to bigger boundaries. We knew it was very small and straight. We tried not to get too obsessed with it, but it worked out well, everyone came in and hit strong shots.''

The tourists were also helped by a succession of dropped catches, and Black Caps captain Brendon McCullum could have few complaints about the defeat.

''We were outplayed today by a far better team on the day,'' he 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.''

The series now moves on to Hamilton, another ground with short boundaries.

Broad added: ''It's important we don't get too carried away. We've two very important games coming up and Hamilton is a small ground again from what I remember, so we'll have to be right on the money again.''