Chester-le-Street: England advanced to the semi-finals after defeating New Zealand by 119 runs in the World Cup match at Riverside Ground here on Wednesday.
Kiwis didn't get off to a flying start as compare to the hosts who rode on opener Jonny Bairstow's (106 off 99 balls) second successive century of the tournament and a solid 123-run opening stand between Bairstow and Jason Roy (60 off 61 balls), which helped them to post 305 for eight wickets.
England dominated the first 30 overs of the game but New Zealand bounced back with late wickets. The hosts were on 194/1 off 30 overs and were heading towards a hughe total against black caps. But in the last 20 overs they managed just 111 runs and lost seven wickets and finish on 305-8.
Later, England captain Eoin Morgan revived the innings with 42 and an eighth-wicket partnership of 29 between Liam Plunkett (15 not out) and Adil Rashid (16) ensured the hosts went past 300.
Kiwi's openers walked to the pavilion Martin Guptill (8) and Henry Nicholls (0) walked to the pavilion leaving their team on a score of 14 runs. Guptill was dismissed by Jofra Archer while Nicholls was lbw by Chris Woakes.
Skipper kane Williamson scored 27 runs off 40 balls while from the other end Ross Taylor too was going fine with his bat and both kept scoring runs but unfortunately in 15.1 over when Kiwis were at 63/1 Williamson walked to the pavilion as he was run out by Mark Wood. The stand which was going well had been cut short.In the very next over, Taylor too got run out by Adil Rashid on a score of 28 runs.
However, Tom Latham played handsomely and with Jimmy Neesham (19) he added 54 runs for the fifth wicket. But the journey of the much needed stand came to an end when in 25.1 over when Neesham was bowled by Mark Wood. Still, 183 were needed from 149 balls and Kiwis was in a difficult situation as they failed to form a partnership who could have been fruitful for them. (UNI)
