England crush New Zealand to qualify for semis
It was a Jonny Bairstow century - his second in as many games - that led the English charge while the bowlers ensured New Zealand never got close to the target.
Brief Score
England 305 for 8 (Bairstow 106, Roy 60) beat New Zealand 186 (Latham 57, Wood 3-34) by 119 runs
It was a one-sided affair at Chester-le-Street as New Zealand succumbed to their third straight defeat, and their biggest one in the tournament, by 119-runs, against a resurgent England team that has now qualified for the semi-finals on Wednesday.
It was a Jonny Bairstow century - his second in as many games - that led the English charge while the bowlers ensured New Zealand never got close to the target.
Although New Zealand lost, their chances of making the semi finals are almost guaranteed as they have a much better net run-rate than Pakistan.
1st Innings
After winning the toss, England captain Eoin Morgan chose to bat first and once again, Bairstow and Jason Roy got England off to an excellent start.
They both produced their second successive 100-plus opening partnership as both batsmen crossed their fifties, before Roy was out for 60.
Joe Root came on and formed another nice partnership with Bairstow to take the team score close to 200 before Root was gone for 24.
Bairstow soon reached his century as he looked to accelerate but he fell after scoring 106 off 99 balls in an innings that had 15 boundaries and one six.
England soon started to lose wickets at regular intervals in trying the score quickly with overs running out as the Kiwi bowlers made sure they mixed things up well and reaped the rewards.
As a result, Jos Buttler (11), Ben Stokes (11) and Chris Woakes (4) went cheaply but Morgan held up his end and scored 42, before he was gone with the score at 272/7 after 46.1 overs.
Liam Plunkett’s 15 not out and Adil Rashid’s 16 eventually helped England cross the 300-run mark and they ended on 305/8 after 50 overs.
Trent Boult and Matt Henry both took two wickets each but James Neesham was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 10-1-41-2.
2nd Innings
In reply, New Zealand lost both their openers Martin Guptill (8) and Henry Nicholls (0) cheaply as Jofra Archer and Woakes both removed them within the first ten overs.
Captain Kane Williamson then formed a partnership with the experienced Ross Taylor before Williamson was run out in the most unfortunate fashion for 27, short of his crease as a Taylor drive hit the fingertips of bowler Mark Wood and hit the stumps at the non-striker’s end.
Taylor soon departed as the asking rate rose, trying to run a double when there wasn’t one, and he was also run out; gone for 28 with the score, a dire 69/4 after 16.4 overs.
Tom Latham who has had a horrendous World Cup, averaging under ten before this match, finally found some form and he and Neesham formed a partnership of 54-runs before Neesham was out.
From there, the Kiwis never recovered as Colin de Grandhomme scored just three runs before he was dismissed by Stokes and the score was 128/6.
Latham soon brought up his fifty but when he was out for 57, it was all but over for New Zealand.
Mitchell Santner (12), Henry (7) and Boult (4) were the last three players to be dismissed.
Mark Wood ended up with three wickets while Woakes, Archer, Plunkett, Rashid and Stokes took one wicket each to have New Zealand all out for 186 runs in 45 overs.
Points Table
This win takes England to 12 points and into third spot while New Zealand are on fourth spot with 11 points.
Pakistan are fifth with nine points while Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are on sixth and seventh with eight and seven points respectively.
At the top, Australia have 14 points and lead the points table, followed by India in second with 13 points.
These two teams have one game left - Australia face South Africa while India face Sri Lanka - and who finishes on top will be decided in their respective matches.
Key Stats
- This is England’s fourth win over New Zealand in World Cups. They had last beaten the Kiwis in 1992; New Zealand have won five games against England in World Cups.
- In ODI’s overall, England have won 41 matches while New Zealand have won 43 times they have played against each other.
- Since the 2015 World Cup, England however have been the side winning more often with eight wins and four losses.
- Jonny Bairstow and Jason Roy have the best opening partnership average - 67.70 - among opening partnerships that have scored over 1000 runs.
