England 179 for six (Buttler 73, Hales 52, Ferguson 2-45) beat New Zealand 159 for six (Phillips 62, Curran 2-26) by 20 runs
Ten days into the Super 12s, England lastly turned up on the T20 World Cup and delivered a medical efficiency in a should-win recreation in opposition to New Zealand on the Gabba. Victory of their ultimate group recreation in opposition to Sri Lanka on Saturday ought to be sufficient to ship them by, barring a major internet run-fee swing.
New Zealand’s internet run fee is wholesome sufficient that they may virtually actually qualify for the semi-finals by beating Ireland by any margin of their ultimate group recreation, whereas Australia’s title defence is hanging by a thread on house soil: they both have to beat Afghanistan and hope England fail to beat Sri Lanka in Sydney, or thrash Afghanistan to make sure they overtake England on NRR.
Buttler units England up
Under Eoin Morgan, England had been a chasing group: he didn’t select to bat first in a T20I as soon as in his final 5-and-a-half years as captain. Under Buttler, there was a shift: they’ve now gained seven out of eight accomplished video games when batting first for the reason that begin of July, and have posted at the least 175 each time.
Williamson thought he had taken an enormous catch to dismiss Buttler for 8 within the ultimate powerplay over, diving low to his left to snaffle a miscue off Mitchell Santner, however replays confirmed the ball had squirmed by his arms and hit the bottom earlier than he snaffled it on the second try. He apologised, and mentioned afterwards: (*1*)
England struggled in opposition to spin by the center on a used pitch which supplied a lot for Santner and Ish Sodhi, who took 2 for 48 in eight overs between them. Hales was stumped whereas charging Santner after reaching a 39-ball half-century, and Buttler was dropped once more on 40 when Daryl Mitchell put down an easy probability off Lockie Ferguson.
England scrape previous par
England shuffled their batting line-up, with Moeen Ali promoted to No. 3 with a licence to take down spin and Dawid Malan ending up as little as No. 8. Moeen holed out to lengthy-on earlier than Buttler reached a 35-ball fifty, whereas Liam Livingstone’s shiny cameo was ended by a superb Ferguson yorker as he tried again-to-again scoops.
New Zealand dragged issues again with common wickets: Harry Brook was caught at lengthy-on in search of again-to-again sixes, Buttler was run out and Stokes was pinned lbw by Ferguson, however England’s decrease-center order stored on swinging and scrambled as much as 179, which seemed simply above par.
Phillips on hearth
Buttler threw Moeen the brand new ball and was almost rewarded with the wicket of Devon Conway, who dragged his again foot behind the crease simply earlier than Buttler whipped the bails off after Moeen beat him on the surface edge. Buttler himself was key to the wicket when Conway did fall, flinging himself low to his proper as Conway tried a paddle-scoop off Chris Woakes.
When Finn Allen fell to Curran’s brief ball, choosing out Stokes on the rope, New Zealand had been 28 for two after 5 overs and struggling, however Phillips was rapidly up and working. He began streakily, inside-edging a 96mph/155kph Wood thunderbolt – the quickest ball of the World Cup up to now – previous his leg stump, after which survived due to an inexplicable drop from Moeen.
Facing Adil Rashid, Phillips skewed a forefront straight to Moeen at cowl, who appeared to take his eye off the ball or lose it within the lights. He failed even to get a hand to an easy probability, and when Phillips crunched three sixes over the brief midwicket boundary in fast succession – one off Wood, and two in a row off Rashid – it seemed as if it might show a pricey drop.
Clutch Curran
Stokes, who had harm his left index finger whereas taking the catch to dismiss Allen, eliminated Williamson in his solely over, the ball steered to Rashid at brief third, and Buttler sensed a possibility. He introduced Wood again for the sixteenth over, a transfer vindicated by Neesham’s miscued pull, which Curran settled beneath at deep midwicket and celebrated with a roar as he turned to the gang.
Woakes, whose nineteenth over within the 2021 semi-ultimate had value 20 runs, then struck on the dying as England closed in, having Daryl Mitchell caught at lengthy-on off a slower ball by Chris Jordan, on instead fielder for Livingstone. Curran then eliminated Phillips to finish the sport as a contest, once more caught by Jordan, and closed it out with a mixture of yorkers, bouncers and slower balls on the dying.
Matt Roller is an assistant editor at ESPNcricinfo. @mroller98
