ICC World Twenty20: England reach final after smashing New Zealand by seven wickets in Delhi

As England rebuilt their limited overs side after the debris of last year’s World Cup, much of their inspiration derived from New Zealand, who had showed what uninhibited cricket could achieve. Eoin Morgan and his team evidently do not do gratitude. At the Feroz Shah Kotla, they dismantled New Zealand to seal a place in the World Twenty20 final.

Here was vindication of everything England have sought to build in the year and 21 days since being bundled out of the World Cup by Bangladesh. They bowled with intelligence, skill and resourcefulness, and fielded with gusto.

And then there was the batting. Where England had been meek a year ago, here they were daring, brash and ruthless. Their victory target of 154 was a middling one in T20 cricket, the sort that previous sides might have tried to tiptoe towards.

Under Morgan, there is no danger of England adopting such an approach. From the first over, when Jason Roy carved four boundaries, the second an inside edge past the keeper for four, England hurtled towards their target with the force of a runaway train. It was entirely in keeping with their approach that, when victory arrived, it was sealed with three sixes in four balls from Jos Buttler.

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Roy has already produced one of the most intoxicating innings an England batsman has ever produced on the world stage. It was audacious and brilliant, a fusion of orthodox power, as in a ferocious straight drive that just missed the stumps off Mitchell McClenaghan; refined subtlety, as in an exquisite push through backward point at the end of Corey Anderson’s first over; and the downright thuggish, as when New Zealand’s 90mph tearaway Adam Milne was hoicked for a straight six as Roy backed away. In the six-over Powerplay alone, nine fours and one six thundered down from Roy’s bat.

It was apt that Roy should pave the way, for there was no more important moment in England’s limited overs reincarnation than his first ball in ODI cricket, the first England faced after the World Cup. Roy slapped Trent Boult straight to backward point, but what mattered was what happened next. There were no recriminations, no berating Roy for his golden duck and apparent show of injudicious aggression. This was how England wanted to play and Morgan would not shy away from the consequences when it went a little awry.

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He evidently knew exactly how thrilling it could be when the new England get it right. Roy’s spirit remained undimmed throughout 44 balls of brutish hitting, his designs on a century ended only by an Ish Sodhi googly. Even after Morgan fell for his second golden duck in three innings, Jos Buttler and the comparatively sober Joe Root kept pummeling New Zealand, just as Roy and Alex Hales had done in putting on 82 during the first 8.2 overs. Yet perhaps it is to his bowlers that Morgan should be most grateful.

For years England have floundered at the death, but in Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes they have stumbled across a pair with the gumption to avoid a late innings pounding. Both have canny slower balls and reliable yorkers, while Jordan excels in bowling deliveries that fall just shy of being wides on the offside. And Stokes also has the intangible quality of picking up wickets with deliveries that resemble tripe. Consecutive full tosses in the 18th over accounted for Luke Ronchi and Corey Anderson, extinguishing New Zealand’s hopes of reaching the 170 that seemed par. How very Stokes it would have been to pick up a hat-trick from full tosses.

Still, that could not detract from the sterling alliance of Jordan and Stokes. The two took a combined 5 for 20 from the last four overs, the most parsimonious England have ever been at the death in a full Twenty20 innings. The upshot was that, after scoring 89 for 1 in their first 10 overs, thanks to Kane Williamson’s class and the pyrotechnics of Colin Munro, who launched Adil Rashid over point with a trademark switch hit, New Zealand floundered, and only mustered 64 for 7 in the last 10 overs. It is on these failings that New Zealand, defeated for an eighth time in nine semi-finals across the World Cup and World T20, will now reflect.

England, meanwhile, are one game away from the ultimate riposte to the humiliation of the 2015 World Cup: the World T20 crown, which would be just their second ICC triumph in 24 attempts. And just think: this side should still be a couple of years away from their peak.