England wins the crucial match against New Zealand to stay alive in the semi-final race. Now, it will be the war between Australia, New Zealand and England for the two semifinal berths. In this must-win game, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler’s brilliant knocks helped England in beating New Zealand by 20 runs.
After winning the toss, England chose to bat first. It got a good opening partnership from Jos Buttler and Alex Hales. Both of them made a partnership of 81 runs for the first wicket. Hales (52 off 40 balls) got out right after scoring a fifty. Moeen Ali got promoted as the one-down batter but he failed to create an impact. On the other side, Buttler (73 off 47 balls) smacked the Kiwi bowlers all over the park and completed his half-century. He got a good partnership with Liam Livingstone. The New Zealand bowlers did a good job in the death overs and took wickets in quick succession. As a result, England couldn’t go past the 200 mark and was restricted to 179/6 in 20 overs.
New Zealand lost opener Devon Conway’s wicket in the second over itself. Another opener Fin Allen departed in the fifth over. When the Kiwis were in trouble, captain Kane Williamson (40) and Glenn Phillips (62 off 36 balls) brought back their team into the game. Both of them made a partnership of 91 runs for the third wicket. Phillips, who scored a century in the last game, smashed a half-century in this match. The match was getting interesting and that’s when Williamson got out. One he went, the other New Zealand batters just came and have gone back to the pavilion in no time. New Zealand’s chances of winning dipped even further when Phillips got out in the 18th over. In the last over, the Kiwis needed 26 runs to win and they were able to score only five runs and ended their innings with a total of 159/6.
After this game, Australia, New Zealand and England scored 5 points each. New Zealand will play its next game against Ireland on November 4. England will take on Sri Lanka on November 5. Australia will play against Afghanistan on November 4. All three teams can win their remaining matches. So, it looks like the Net Run Rate will come into play for the semifinal qualification in this group.
