CHESTER-LE-STREET: New Zealand sorely missed Lockie Ferguson in Wedne­sday’s comprehensive defeat by England and need the right-arm quick back to lift their bowling in the semi-finals of the World Cup, former captain Daniel Vettori has said.

England got off to a flying start and were 194 for one in 30 overs before a New Zealand attack minus Ferguson, who sat out with a tightness in hamstring, somewhat arrested the run flow to restrict the hosts to 305-8.

Ferguson’s absence denied skipper Kane Williamson the luxury of using their leading wicket-taker in small bursts to dent their opposition.

“New Zealand missed Lockie Ferguson in Durham, particularly because of the way he fits into the structure of the game,” Vettori wrote in his column for the International Cricket Council. “Kane likes to use his as a first-change bowler in short 2-3 over spells. With him out, that meant they had to shuffle things around a little.

“If he is back for the semi-final that will give New Zealand a lot more certainty around how they go about their 50 overs.”

New Zealand, despite their third successive loss, are set to make the semi-finals ahead of Pakistan because of their vastly superior net run rate.

Vettori paid tribute to Trent Boult, who dismissed Joe Root and Jos Buttler on Wednesday to become New Zealand’s leading wicket-taker in World Cups with 37 wickets from two editions.

“He was fantastic again and the knuckle ball to dismiss Jos Buttler was a highly-skilled piece of bowling,” Vettori said.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2019