England whip NZ to cruise into first semi-final since 1992

CHESTER-LE-STREET: England qualified for the World Cup semi-finals for the first time in 27 years on Wednesday with a crushing 119-run win over New Zealand, who are also effectively heading to the playoffs despite a third straight loss.

Jonny Bairstow’s second century in a row helped England to 305-8 off its 50 overs at the Riverside Ground, and the Black Caps never looked like chasing down the target after the run-outs of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in successive overs left them 69-4.

New Zealand were eventually dismissed for 186 and leapfrogged in the standings by England, who will end the group stage in third place. The tournament hosts will play in the second semi-final, at Edgbaston in Birmingham next Thursday (July 11), against the team that finish in second place, currently India.

England, who entered the tournament as the world’s top-ranked team, marched into the semi-finals following morale-restoring consecutive wins over India and New Zealand.

New Zealand, who had lost to Pakistan and Australia before heading to Chester-le-Street for the league closer, are almost set to play in the first semi-final at Old Trafford in Manchester on Tuesday when they will have to find momentum from somewhere.

New Zealand are currently two points ahead of fifth-place Pakistan, whose final league game is against Bangladesh at Lord’s on Friday, but are highly unlikely to lose their place in the top four because of a far superior net run-rate (+0.175) than Pakistan’s -0.792.

England enjoyed two strokes of fortune in a match they needed to win to guarantee a semi-final spot.

The first was winning the toss on a pitch that slowed and broke up as a sunny day wore on, making batting increasingly difficult.

Bairstow and fellow opener Jason Roy (60 off 61 balls) enjoyed a third straight century stand before it was broken at 123, giving England a platform for a shot at a massive total.

But from 194-1, England lost Joe Root (24), Bairstow and Jos Buttler (11) in a 19-ball spell to slump to 214-4, and the boundaries began to dry up.

Skipper Eoin Morgan’s 42 off 40 balls helped to inch his team past 300, but New Zealand were back in the contest after restricting England to only 111 runs in their last 20 overs.

That was until the early loss of openers Henry Nicholls (0) and Martin Guptill (8) was compounded by Kane Williamson New Zealand’s rock and captain getting sent back to the pavilion by the harshest of ways.

Ross Taylor played a straight drive that glanced off the fingertips of bowler Mark Wood and onto the stumps, with Williamson out of his ground at the non-striker’s end. After a lengthy look at the replays, Williamson was given out for 27.

Taylor departed for 28 the next over after choosing to go for a risky second with the ball heading to Adil Rashid at fine leg. Rashid’s throw was pinpoint and Jos Buttler removed the bails with Taylor short.

Once a 54-run partnership between Tom Latham (57) and Jimmy Neesham (19) was ended, New Zealand were simply delaying the inevitable by mostly blocking out to ensure the team’s net run rate wasn’t too affected.

ENGLAND wicket-keeper Jos Buttler runs out New Zealand’s Ross Taylor.—Reuters

The delay was extended by the arrival of a streaker, wearing nothing but a green hat, who danced in front of batsmen Latham and Mitchell Santner and then managed to initially evade security staff who took a long time to react.

England also ended a run of five straight losses to New Zealand at World Cups, the latest being a humiliating eight-wicket defeat in 2015 that led to their group-stage exit and a makeover of the one-day game in England.

It has resulted in England reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 1992, when they lost to Pakistan in the title match in Melbourne.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND:

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

J.J. Roy c Santner b Neesham 60 61 8 0 98.36
J.M. Bairstow b Henry 106 99 15 1 107.07
J.E. Root c Latham b Boult 24 25 1 0 96.00
J.C. Buttler c Williamson b Boult 11 12 1 0 91.66
E.J.G. Morgan c Santner b Henry 42 40 5 0 105.00
B.A. Stokes c Henry b Santner 11 27 0 0 40.74
C.R. Woakes c Williamson b Neesham 4 11 0 0 36.36
L.E. Plunkett not out 15 12 1 0 125.00
Adil Rashid b Southee 16 12 1 0 133.33
J.C. Archer not out 1 1 0 0 100.00

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-4, W-7) 15 - - - --

TOTAL (for eight wkts, 50 overs) 305 - - - --

FALL OF WKTS: 1-123 (Roy, 18.4 ov), 2-194 (Root, 30.1 ov), 3-206 (Bairstow, 31.4 ov), 4-214 (Buttler, 34.2 ov), 5-248 (Stokes, 41.6 ov), 6-259 (Woakes, 44.5 ov), 7-272 (Morgan, 46.1 ov), 8-301 (Adil Rashid, 49.3 ov).

DID NOT BAT: M.A. Wood.

BOWLING: Santner 10-0-65-1 (2w); Boult 10-0-56-2 (1w); Southee 9-0-70-1; Henry 10-0-54-2 (2w); de Grandhomme 1-0-11-0; Neesham 10-1-41-2 (2w).

NEW ZEALAND:

Batsmen & mode of dismissals R B 4s 6s SR

M.J. Guptill c Buttler b Archer 8 16 1 0 50.00
H.M. Nicholls lbw b Woakes 0 1 0 0 0.00
K.S. Williamson run out 27 40 3 0 67.50
L.R.P.L. Taylor run out 28 42 2 0 66.66
T.W.M. Latham c Buttler b Plunkett 57 65 5 0 87.69
J.D.S. Neesham b Wood 19 27 1 0 70.37
C. de Grandhomme c Root b Stokes 3 13 0 0 23.07
M.J. Santner lbw b Wood 12 30 1 0 40.00
T.G. Southee not out 7 16 0 0 43.75
M.J. Henry b Wood 7 13 0 0 53.84
T.A. Boult st Buttler b Rashid 4 7 1 0 57.14

EXTRAS (B-2, LB-6, W-6) 14 - - - --

TOTAL (all out, 45 overs) 186 - - - --

FALL OF WKTS: 1-2 (Nicholls, 0.5 ov), 2-14 (Guptill, 5.2 ov), 3-61 (Williamson, 15.1 ov), 4-69 (Taylor, 16.4 ov), 5-123 (Neesham, 25.1 ov), 6-128 (de Grandhomme, 28.1 ov), 7-164 (Latham, 38.3 ov), 8-166 (Santner, 39.2 ov), 9-181 (Henry, 43.4 ov), 10-186 (Boult, 44.6 ov).

BOWLING: Woakes 8-0-44-1 (1w); Archer 7-1-17-1 (1w); Plunkett 8-0-28-1 (1w); Wood 9-0-34-3 (2w); Root 3-0-15-0; Adil Rashid 5-0-30-1; Stokes 5-0-10-1 (1w).

RESULT: England won by 119 runs.

UMPIRES: S. Ravi (India) and R.J. Tucker (Australia).

TV UMPIRE: P.R. Reiffel (Australia).

MATCH REFEREE: D.C. Boon (Australia).

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH: Jonny Bairstow.

STANDINGS

(Tabulated under played, won, lost, no-result, points, net run-rate):

Australia 8 7 1 0 14 +1.000

India 8 6 1 1 13 +0.811

England 9 6 3 0 12 +1.152

New Zealand 9 5 3 1 11 +0.175

Pakistan 8 4 3 1 9 -0.792