England hammer Black Caps to reach WT20 final

Omnisports

March 30, 2016 1:31 AM

New Zealand's unbeaten run at the World Twenty20 came to a shuddering halt as England produced a wonderful display to reach the final.

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Jason Roy clubbed 78 from 44 deliveries as England stormed into the World Twenty20 final with a seven-wicket demolition of New Zealand in Delhi.

The 2010 champions looked set to face a stiff chase on Wednesday when the Black Caps, the only unbeaten team in the semi-finals, made it to 89-1 from 10 overs after being invited to bat first on a surface offering good pace.

However, Moeen Ali (1-10 from two overs) helped England apply the brakes and New Zealand could only add 20 runs in the last four overs of their innings, for the loss of five wickets, as Chris Jordan (1-24 from four) and Ben Stokes (3-26 from four) excelled to limit the Black Caps to 153-8.

Kane Williamson's men had defended modest targets superbly earlier in the tournament, but quickly found themselves in deep trouble when Roy set the tone for England's reply with four fours off Corey Anderson in the first set of six.

The opener went on to score freely all around the wicket, striking 13 boundaries as he comfortably surpassed his previous high score of 43 in T20 internationals, and England cruised home with 17 balls unused to book a meeting with hosts India or West Indies at Eden Gardens on Sunday.

A flat-batted straight six off Adam Milne represented a highlight for Roy, who was chiefly responsible for England racking up 67 runs in their six-over powerplay.

There was a brief lift for New Zealand when Mitchell Santner had Alex Hales caught at long-on for 20, but Roy continued to dominate and his side needed just 44 from 47 balls by the time he was bowled by Ish Sodhi.

Eoin Morgan fell for a first-ball duck for the second time in the tournament, lbw to Sodhi, but it mattered little as Joe Root (27 not out) and Jos Buttler (32 not out) saw England over the line, the latter finishing the job with three sixes in four balls.

New Zealand had laid a solid platform through two batsmen of contrasting styles - Williamson and Colin Munro - after the fit-again Martin Guptill had fallen for 15.

Skipper Williamson was typically classy in contributing 32 from 28 deliveries, while Munro adopted a much more aggressive approach and used his switch-hitting capability to good effect en route to a 32-ball 46.

However, the momentum started to shift after Moeen took a catch running back to mid-off from his own bowling to remove Williamson.

Munro was duly caught at third man off Liam Plunkett and England gained the upper hand through Jordan and Stokes, who returned 3-6 from his last 12 deliveries and was on a hat-trick in the 18th over after Luke Ronchi (3) and Anderson (28) holed out to successive full-tosses.

Omnisports

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