The English team pulled off a great chase to defeat New Zealand in the last Super 8 game of the ongoing T20 World Cup. At the R Premadasa International Cricket Stadium in Colombo, Sri Lanka, England pulled a heist by 4 wickets.
Earlier in the first innings, the English team restricted New Zealand to 159/7 in 20 overs after a great start from their openers. Their spinners did most of the job to restrict New Zealand batters.
For New Zealand, Glenn Phillips top-scored with 39 off 28 deliveries. English spinners took all seven wickets with Will Jacks (2/23), Adil Rashid (2/28), Rehan Ahmed (2/28) and Liam Dawson (1/32). In this game, England bowled 16 overs of spin. It was a first in their T20I history.
England didn’t start well and lost two early wickets within 2 overs. At one point an English win looked improbable, but Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmad persisted with good batting to take them home. They chose down 43 runs in the last three overs to finish the group stage with three wins.
New Zealand has three points and is in second place in the standings. They will hope that Pakistan does not defeat Sri Lanka by a large margin to maintain the lead in the net run rate.
New Zealand openers, Tim Seifert (35) and Finn Allen (29) gave them a perfect start on a tricky surface and raced to 54/0 in the powerplay. However, Rashid came in the next over to remove Seifert and changed the momentum of the game. Phillips tried to create a partnership with Allen, but Will Jacks picked off Allen soon after.
New Zealand were 125/4 in the first 15 overs, and they could only manage 34/3 in the last five overs. Chapman and Cole McConchie offered some resistance at the end, but they could not up the scoring rate in the death overs.
The two-time World Champions, the English team, were struck twice in the power play. That broke their momentum. Brook and Bethel steadied the innings, but both fell in the 8th and 9th overs.
After that, Tom Banton and Sam Curran absorbed the pressure to keep England afloat in their pursuit of topping the table. They added 42 runs off just 35 balls.
New Zealand tightened its grip on the game with England needing 43 off 18 balls with 4 wickets in hand. Will Jacks and Rehan Ahmad targeted Phillips in the 18th over to take 22 runs and brought England into the contest. They made an unbeaten 44-run partnership in just 16 balls to help England win their last Super 8 game.
