ENGLAND CRUISE INTO SEMI-FINALS
CHAMPIONS TROPHY ACTION FROM CARDIFF
ENGLAND clinched their spot in the ICC Champions Trophy semi-finals with a professional display to snuff out New Zealand in Cardiff.
Half centuries from Alex Hales, Joe Root and Jos Buttler laid the foundations, but for once the bowlers took centre-stage as the Black Caps were strangled and finished 87 runs short.
That was despite a composed innings of 87 from New Zealand captain Kane Williamson. Jake Ball (2/31) and Mark Wood (1/32) spearheaded a ruthless English display with the ball.
Williamson looked to have won an important toss with showery and blustery conditions around Cardiff throughout the day. He put England into bat with dark clouds overhead.
Jason Roy has been struggling for form in this competition and again found the middle of the bat hard to locate, bludgeoning a couple of boundaries before Adam Milne’s legstump yorker bowled the Surrey man around his legs.
But whenever Roy is out-of-sorts, his opening partner Alex Hales seems to thrive. Hales punished anything wide from the Black Caps bowlers. He and Joe Root added 81 for the second wicket before Milne struck again, forcing Hales to drag onto his stumps for a fluent 56.
Eoin Morgan came and went, feathering through off Corey Anderson for a quickfire 13. That was the theme of the England innings; wickets falling at regular intervals, with Root next to depart after a classy knock of 64 from 65 balls.
It was a vintage Root innings, ticking along at a useful rate without ever looking troubled. When he was bowled by Anderson, the crowd’s silence was deafening.
But England bat deep and when Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler came together at 188/4, fireworks threatened to rain down on the Cardiff Wales Stadium. Yet neither could reach their blistering best on a two paced pitch in the Welsh capital, though Stokes smote 48 before skying to Milne at Third Man. Trent Boult’s policy of bowling short and wide of off stump to the Durham all rounder paid dividends.
Buttler, so often England’s catalyst, carried the burden of the innings from that moment on. England were 260/7 after Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid (both 12) came and went to Anderson and Mitchell Santner respectively.
It took the England wicket-keeper 27 balls to find the fence, but as the innings approached its final five overs and England targeted 300 plus, Buttler started to motor.
The audacity to scoop Boult over the ‘keeper’s head for six was breathtaking, so too the power to slap the same bowler over mid-off for another maximum.
With the help of Liam Plunkett (15 off 10 balls), Buttler carried England past 300, before running out of partners. Plunkett was held in the deep by Tim Southee off Milne, before Wood and Ball both perished first ball. England’s 310 looked a par score.
But when Ball nipped one through Ronchi’s defences in the first over, that total looked an epoch away, especially with dank conditions around.
Stokes made further inroads when he tempted Martin Guptill to edge through to Root at slip to make it 63/2.
England, however, could not be content until they snared the wicket of Williamson. The Black Caps’ captain was calmness personified throughout his innings of 87.
Partnered by Taylor, he was able to tick along and leave wickets in the tank. Williamson’s ability to loft the ball over in the infield infuriated the England fielders until Wood struck gold, the Durham paceman’s shortpitched bowling bearing fruit when Williamson gloved a snorter to Buttler.
That signalled the start of the Kiwi collapse. Taylor soon followed his skipper back to the shed when he smashed straight to Root at midwicket for 39, then a brief cameo Jimmy Neesham was abruptly ended by Plunkett.
Rashid then joined the party after trapping Neil Broom LBW for 11, getting Santner stumped for three and it was a procession for England after that. Plunkett finished with 4/55 after cleaning up the tail, accounting for Anderson, Milne and Southee to steer England home to a convincing win.