England Goes Down to Shock Defeat by New Zealand in World Cup Semi-final

England went down to a shock defeat by New Zealand in the semi-final of the World Cup, losing by three wickets with two balls left to play. The Black Caps had won their group and progressed through the tournament undefeated, while England were knocked out in the group stage.

Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell shared a century opening stand but after they were removed by Tim Southee and Mitchell Starc England’s run rate dropped, and once Alex Hales and Eoin Morgan departed it became extremely difficult for the hosts to score quickly. They got up to 198 from their 50 overs before being bowled out in the 45th.

New Zealand reached their target having lost just two wickets with the match finishing in the 45th over in front of a crowd of 14,000 at Edgbaston.

There were only 32 sixes during the course of the game, New Zealand reaching their target inside 50 overs for just the third time in World Cup history.

New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat first. Martin Guptill was ruled out due to injury, with Brendon McCullum taking his place at the top of the batting order. New Zealand started slowly, making just 1 run off their first 3 overs. However both teams were very economical throughout the innings, only conceding 0-8 from the first over of the innings, five from Starc and one from Finn. In fact it took until the final over before any boundaries were hit, McCullum hitting Southee over short third man for a four to take them past 20 runs. However McCullum gifted James Anderson his first wicket of the match when he gave a catch to Joe Root at mid off having made just two. McCullum would then depart himself, caught by Root off the bowling of Finn for 25 runs to leave New Zealand on 41-2 after 10 overs.

New Zealand needed a strong partnership in order to get past 200, with Corey Anderson and Tim Southee both getting double figures but so was Moeen Ali, trapping Southee lbw for just six runs meaning New Zealand was on 98 after 15 overs.

Chris Woakes would then get two wickets in the space of three balls with Brendon McCullum and Jimmy Neesham both edging to Jos Buttler and New Zealand slipped further to 111-5. Corey Anderson would be the next wicket to fall, again to Buttler but he’d make up for it by running out Guptill at the other end, with New Zealand 123-6.

New Zealand were looking down the barrel but Kane Williamson and Nathan McCullum took them over 150 before Williamson hit a straight drive off James Tredwell to point, ending the partnership on 83. New Zealand would’ve been happy with their total of 152 but it could’ve so easily been less if not for Luke Ronchi’s unbeaten 33 off just 21 balls.

England started slowly with Chris Jordan bowling tight lengths but struggling to take wickets, conceding 0-21 in his first three overs

England started well with the bat, both openers hitting the ball fluently and finding the boundary on a regular basis. They looked to have taken up where New Zealand left off until Mitchell Starc removed Ian Bell caught behind for 37 runs in just his second over of the innings, leaving England 41-1 after 5 overs. Jonathan Trott was looking to score quickly again, really finding the boundary but fell in the tenth over for 27 runs when he drove hard at Neesham and was caught behind by Ronchi.