World T20: Wright stuff revives England's hopes

Luke Wright's second electric innings of the tournament was certainly welcome by England after it enabled them to beat New Zealand by six wickets and revive hopes of a title defence with their first win against major opponents.

With their final Super Eight game against Sri Lanka on Monday, it is possible that England could qualify for the semi-finals in Colombo winning just one match, though that would be decided by net run-rate.

"It was a must-win game for us and the way we won it was really good after losing the toss on a dry pitch," Broad said afterwards. "Steve Finn set the tone brilliantly for us with his three wickets and we just needed one big partnership with the bat, which Luke and Eoin Morgan delivered.

"It wasn't perfect but we put in some strong performances. I genuinely believe we will get that perfect game and we'll be pretty unstoppable when that happens."

Wright made 76 off 43 balls and struck the ball with all his customary power. Chasing 149, after New Zealand had hiccupped through their innings due to the regular loss of wickets, Wright's timely knock set-up England's victory with seven balls to spare.

On a pitch used earlier in the week, it was not a formality and he needed assistance, something Morgan duly obliged. After his pyrotechnics against the West Indies, Morgan was the wicket New Zealand wanted. Tucking himself into Wright's slipstream, he played a waiting game happy to accumulate while his partner hit the boundaries. And hit them Wright did, striking five sixes and five fours, including one off Tim Southee over cow corner that went 93 metres, the second longest so far in the tournament.

He was not the only batsman to take a liking to Southee, who opened the bowling with Kyle Mills. While Mills was steadiness personified, Alex Hales got England off to their first decent start of the competition with 16 runs off Southee's opening salvo.

Hales has his method, broadly to plant his front leg down the pitch, dip his knee and smear anything that is not a yorker to leg, but at least he has one, something Craig Kieswetter seems bereft of after failing again. With his captain on the warpath over losing early wickets, Kieswetter went into his shell, scoring four off 14 balls until he was bowled attempting a sweep off Daniel Vettori.

The batsman's job was made easier by a terrific performance with the ball, especially from Finn, who fully deserved his three for 16, the best figures of his T20 international career.

Finn bowled with pace, hostility and accuracy, a combination that saw him remove Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum, two of New Zealand's best batsmen, in his opening two overs. Guptill was beaten for pace by a yorker that had him lbw while McCullum miscued a slash, mostly out of frustration from his scoring shots being dried up, to third man.

If New Zealand could not quibble about that, they had plenty of cause for complaint over Finn's regular dislodging of the bails with his back knee when he bowls. He does not mean to do it but it happens regularly enough for umpires to now call dead ball. The only trouble is, those dead balls cost Ross Taylor's team at least six runs, as one went for four, another for two while a third would have been called wide, a factor that might have been germane had Wright's knock not put things beyond doubt.

The International Cricket Council have brought in the protocol for this tournament, the umpires instructed to allow the first infringement but to call all subsequent ones, by the same bowler, dead ball.

"I disagree with the rule, it's a rule for one person," Taylor said later. "I think it cost us eight runs and a wicket. Unless the batsmen gets out you should just carry on. It should only be a dead ball once a wicket happens." Asked if it should just be called as a no-ball, Taylor replied: "Talking to one umpire out there, that's what he thinks the rule should be."