SPORTS
On a pitch made spicy from sweating under covers for four hours of rain, which shortened the game to 24 overs a side, they out-played and out-thought New Zealand to win by 10 runs and qualify for the Champions Trophy semi-finals and a likely meeting with South Africa at the Oval on Wednesday.
Of New Zealand's top six only Williamson survived Alastair Cook's side could now take on South Africa By Derek Pringle at Swalec Stadium Just when it mattered most, England found the right conditions to fit their game plan.
On a pitch made spicy from sweating under covers for four hours of rain, which shortened the game to 24 overs a side, they out-played and out-thought New Zealand to win by 10 runs and qualify for the Champions Trophy semi-finals and a likely meeting with South Africa at the Oval on Wednesday.
That match-up is not yet confirmed and should Sri Lanka beat Australia heavily today (Monday) they could top the table and play in that Oval semi-final instead. If that happens, England will be back in Cardiff to face India, the most impressive team in the tournament and one they would probably not choose to meet until the final.
England's win yesterday would have been extra satisfying for Alastair Cook, given that he had declared his team and lost the toss just before rain fell and reduced the game to something close to a Twenty20 match.
The team they would have chosen for that format would probably have excluded five that played yesterday, including their captain, which was three more than New Zealand. That differential looked like being a potential mismatch especially when England were dismissed for 169 inside their allotted overs.
But in conditions tailor made for seam rather than swing (it was too cold for conventional swing and too damp for reverse), the bowlers bossed New -Zealand's top order making them look like the new boys at school, their shining morning faces nonplussed as wickets fell and the run-rate spiralled.
Of the top six batsmen, only Kane Williamson, in the adhesive role Jonathan Trott normally plays for England, managed double figures, though he played more big shots than Trott, including a huge six off Tim Bresnan. His flurry, plus a handy cameo from one-day debutant Corey Ander-son, put New Zealand within striking distance of an improbable win after the pair took 27 runs off the two batting powerplay overs, 19 of them coming off Bresnan's six balls.
With 36 needed off 18 balls, however, Stuart Broad returned and immediately had Williamson caught off a miscued slog by Anderson, though when the umpires checked the front foot for a no-ball it looked like he had overstepped. Somehow, Steve Davis, the TV umpire, ruled that when Broad had first planted his foot there was some scintilla of boot behind the back edge of the line, though how he measured that from the television replays shown is anyone's guess.
With him gone and Anderson following six balls later for 30, which left the Blackcaps with 30 to score off 10 balls, England had the result under control despite Nathan McCullum and Kyle Mills getting the margin to within two lusty blows. Before that, England's biggest fear had been a no-result, which would have seen New Zealand through and them left praying for an Australian win against Sri Lanka.
Fortunately, the rain relented and the match began at 3.45pm, though there was a moment 10 overs into New Zealand's innings when drizzle returned, an event that forced Cook to turn to Ravi Bopara and James Tredwell in a bid to get through to 20 overs as quickly as possible Despite the reduction, England approached their innings as they have throughout the tournament, with builders at the start and hitters thereafter.
Cook does not play T20 cricket for England but he did not look a liability even if he was dropped three times by Nathan McCullum, on 14, 38 and 45. At least England's captain put bat to ball, even managing to strike a six off James Franklin, the seventh in his 50-over career. McCullum later made up for his trio of spills by pouching the four that later came his way in arguably the most extreme case of the ball following one player around.
The reprieves enabled Cook to top-score with 64 but aside from a fine supporting innings of 38 off 40 balls from Joe Root, nobody else was able to last long enough with the impulsion to play big shots and find the boundary, demands that proved tricky on a pitch with sideways movement and occasional steep bounce.
Eoin Morgan and Jos Buttler both fell before being able to unfurl their exciting repertoire of shots, with those following troubling the scorers even less. Bowled out with three balls remaining, it was a naive end to the innings but with England's bowlers dominant over the first 15 overs, they got away with it.
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