March 30, 2016
Brief Scorecard: England 159 for 3 (Roy 78) beat New Zealand 153 for 8 (Munro 46, Stokes 3-26) by seven wickets
The England team line up to congratulate Joe Root and Jos Buttler after the win, England v New Zealand, World T20, Semi-final, Delhi, March 30, 2016
March 30, 2016
Brief Scorecard: England 159 for 3 (Roy 78) beat New Zealand 153 for 8 (Munro 46, Stokes 3-26) by seven wickets
The England team line up to congratulate Joe Root and Jos Buttler after the win, England v New Zealand, World T20, Semi-final, Delhi, March 30, 2016
NEW DELHI – England are in the final of the World Twenty20 after a brilliant innings of 78 from Jason Roy laid the foundations for a comfortable run chase to a seven-wicket victory against New Zealand in Delhi.
Eoin Morgan’s side will play either India or West Indies in Sunday’s final after a successful victory charge built on a fine late-innings fightback in the field and aggressive batting from their openers.
England’s pursuit began brilliantly with Roy – strong on the cut – bludgeoning four boundaries from the opening over, from Corey Anderson. They raced to 60 off the first five overs to establish firm control.
Grant Elliott stemmed the flow, conceding only four from his first over, the eighth of the innings, before Alex Hales holed out to Colin Munro off Mitchell Santner to give New Zealand their first scalp.
Roy and Joe Root continued to keep the scoreboard ticking over until Roy was bamboozled by an Ish Sodhi leg-break and bowled for 78. Worse was to follow as Morgan was trapped plumb lbw by Sodhi first ball.
Mitchell McClenaghan and Mitchell Sandtner then slowed the run rate down, leaving England 30 to win off the last five overs. Two fours from Jos Buttler eased the nerves however, before he and Root cut loose in the 17th over, from Sodhi, which yielded 22 runs, including two consecutive sixes from Buttler, to bring the scores level.
The Lancashire wicketkeeper then settled the match with a flourish, pulling Santner over deep midwicket for six to earn England their second World T20 final appearance, after their tournament win in the Caribbean in 2010.
Morgan’s side had initially looked set to face a large run chase when New Zealand’s top order took charge early on after the England captain put them into bat. They raced to 89 for the loss of only Martin Guptill, for 15, off the first 10 overs, with both Kane Williamson and Colin Munro looking in excellent touch.
But Williamson was caught and bowled by Moeen Ali for 32 to end the partnership in the 11th over and, though Munro went on to reach 46 before being caught by Moeen off Liam Plunkett, and Corey Anderson added a useful 28 from 23 balls, England fought back hard in the later stages of the innings.
Ben Stokes took three for 26 while Chris Jordan’s tight bowling in recording figures of one for 24 from four overs as wickets tumbled late on and New Zealand finished on 153 for eight.
Courtesy: The Guardian
