BRISBANE, Australia — Clinical England rescued their
Twenty20 World Cup campaign as they held their nerve to beat New Zealand by 20 runs at the
Gabba in Brisbane on Tuesday.
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England, who had
been facing almost certain elimination had they lost, moved into the top two in
Group 1 along with their opponents with one round of matches to go.
Only the top two
reach the semifinals.
It puts enormous
pressure on hosts and defending champions Australia, who must now win their
last match against Afghanistan and hope England or New Zealand stumble.
“We had a poor
performance (losing against Ireland), but there’s a lot of confidence in the
group,” said England skipper Jos Buttler, who propelled England to 179–6 after
he smashed 73 off 47 balls. Alex Hales also struck a half-century.
“We were aiming
for 160–165, but we managed to push beyond that — we left it all out there
tonight,” said Buttler.
The captain
played a crucial role with the bat as
England finally started to show why they
were one of the pre-tournament favorites. Their fate is now in their own hands.
England got away
to a perfect start in the field when New Zealand opener Devon Conway
leg-glanced a ball from Chris Woakes and Buttler took a spectacular diving
catch.
It got worse for
the Kiwis when Finn Allen pulled a slower ball from Sam Curran to Ben Stokes at
deep mid-wicket, leaving New Zealand 28–2 after five overs.
The Black Caps
were struggling against a tight bowling attack, but the momentum swung firmly
towards them when Moeen Ali dropped the in-form Glenn Phillips when he was on
15 and New Zealand 64–2.
Phillips skied
an attempted pull shot straight to Ali, who somehow didn’t get a hand on it.
Phillips, who
blasted a century against
Sri Lanka in New Zealand’s last match, made the
English pay as he raced to his half century off only 25 balls.
Buttler was
ringing the changes with his attack as he tried seven bowlers in the search for
a breakthrough.
His seventh
choice finally paid off when Black Caps skipper Kane Williamson (40) squeezed a
Stokes delivery to Adil Rashid at short third.
James Neesham
came and went for six but Phillips kept on smashing the England attack all over
the Gabba.
He lost Daryl Mitchell,
caught on the boundary by substitute fielder Chris Jordan off Mark Wood, before
falling the same way off Sam Curran almost immediately.
Once Phillips
fell, New Zealand’s challenge was as good as over as the lower order struggled
to find the boundary.
Buttler makes
Black Caps pay
“Credit to the
way England played,” Williamson said.
“They put us
under pressure. They played beautifully, hats-off to them, they were pretty
clinical.
“It was a
slightly above-par total. We tried to take it a little deeper, but credit to
the way they bowled.”
Earlier, Buttler
was dropped twice during his entertaining knock, before passing former captain
Eoin Morgan as the highest run-scorer for England in T20 internationals.
Williamson was
left to rue letting Buttler off the hook.
“He’s one of, if
not the best player in the game,” Williamson said.
“If you do that
he’ll make you pay, he made the boundaries look small, which they certainly are
not.”
New Zealand,
England and Australia are all on five points after four games.
But New Zealand,
last year’s beaten finalists, top Group 1 on net run rate, with England second.
New Zealand, who
could have sealed a spot in the semi-finals with victory, play Ireland on
Friday — the same day the hosts are in action against already eliminated
Afghanistan.
England face
Asian champions Sri Lanka on Saturday to wrap the group up.
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