Semi Final 1 - New Zealand v England (30th March)

[Howe_zat]

Jonathan Agnew
BBC Test Match Special
"Hales hit it straight down long-on's throat and you wonder was that really the best option?"

Aggers talks tactics.

 

[Howe_zat]

Making up for me missing Roys innings are some facts that I have pulled out of the factotron for fact fans

After 16 overs New Zealand had 133/3, and England had 131/3. NZ made 20/5 from that point on. England hit 21 in the next 5 balls.

Jason Roy hit more boundaries in the first over than NZ did in their last seven overs.

After 7 overs Roy had 55, which means that if he could have carried on at that rate he would have reached the target of 154 by himself after 19.4 overs.

Ben Stokes took more wickets today with full tosses than Corey Anderson has taken in the whole tournament

 

[indiaholic]

 

[hendrix]

After 16 overs New Zealand had 133/3, and England had 131/3. NZ made 20/5 from that point on. England hit 21 in the next 5 balls.

Pretty telling.

NZ middle order unable to access boundaries outside of the field restricted overs. Ronchi and Taylor etc have their target areas and can't adjust.

Batsmen don't need to go full Maxwell, but at least have options to standard death bowling plans and field sets.

Another 20 runs and the spinners would have had much more to work with.

 

[hendrix]

And I've been saying for a long time that Taylor would really benefit from adding a reverse sweep to his range of shots.

 

[Athlai]

Ahh well. We had overperformed anwyay. Really needed Guptill to get a big one.

 

[BeeGee]

New Zealand, always the bridesmaid never the bride.

 

[_Ed_]

On the positive side, I was pleased with Munro's performance. Would have been even better if he'd pushed on to 70-plus, but he definitely helped put us on track for a decent score and it wasn't his fault that we didn't get one.

 

[Burgey]

Was there a stand out poor umpiring decision in this game?

 

[Athlai]

Was there a stand out poor umpiring decision in this game?

England winning the toss.

 

[91Jmay]

Was there a stand out poor umpiring decision in this game?

Can't think of one, no.

 

[straw man]

This tournament has gone remarkably well, and to continue in the vein that's served so well I will again not get up in the middle of the night to watch. Will be fun if the spinners can confuse England just like the other teams. I guess I'll find out in the morning.

Middle/lower order has always been the biggest weakness of this team, it's just that other teams have either failed to exploit this or else have partly exploited it before batting worse again themselves.

Probably good I didn't get up - a hammering in the end and to noone's surprise it was NZ's middle and lower order that was the main deficiency (and Ronchi even kept poorly to boot, judging by the comments in this thread). Seems they may not have done homework on Roy either - just assumed he'd get himself out leaving bigger fish to fry.

I did think four from four in the group stage was a little flattering to this team and do feel a loss was kind of due, even if I generally think that 'law of averages' concept is a nonsense.

It's a shame though cos I had my T20 Is The Highest Form Of The Game Of Cricket post all ready for NZ winning this thing.

Good luck to England in the final.

 

[cnerd123]

England winning the toss.

Not an umpiring decision tbf

 

[_Ed_]

I generally think that 'law of averages' concept is a nonsense.

Absolutely, and kind of an insult to what we achieved in the tournament.

But, yep, no complaints at all over this result. Just didn't have the batting to set a defendable target against a bloody impressive and powerful England batting line-up.

Interesting tweet from Iain O'Brien: "NZ touring England last summer, best thing that had happened to England cricket for quite some time. Learned and surpassed."

 

[Black_Warrior]

NZ's misfiring lower middle order finally gives up in the match that matters the most. This was disappointing.

 

[Zinzan]

Congrats to England. I did feel NZ's approach of "just getting a decent total and then bowling tightly" would be tougher to against this England side. Batting first you need to be more ruthless against them since they've shown they can chase pretty much anything. I don't even think the 175-180 total NZ should have scored would have quite been enough.

Obvious problem the NZ middle orders ability to keep the strike turning over. They just don't have enough options to score quite frankly. Surprised McMillan hasn't worked on the lap/paddle shot with some of them (Taylor used to play it a few years back) as it's an effective scoring option against slower balls and accurate yorker bowlers like Jordon. Anderson, Taylor & Elliott are all susceptible to getting stuck due to being too one dimensional and it allowed the Eng bowlers to dictate. If you started lapping the likes of Jordon, it forces them to look at a plan B.

Anyway, England fully deserved the win and feel they're a good shot at beating either the Windies or India. If they're paying an outsiders $2.20 or thereabouts I'll probably flick a couple of hundred on them.

 

[JediNudist]

Congrats to England. I did feel NZ's approach of "just getting a decent total and then bowling tightly" would be tougher to against this England side. Batting first you need to be more ruthless against them since they've shown they can chase pretty much anything. I don't even think the 175-180 total NZ should have scored would have quite been enough.

Obvious problem the NZ middle orders ability to keep the strike turning over. They just don't have enough options to score quite frankly. Surprised McMillan hasn't worked on the lap/paddle shot with some of them (Taylor used to play it a few years back) as it's an effective scoring option against slower balls and accurate yorker bowlers like Jordon. Anderson, Taylor & Elliott are all susceptible to getting stuck due to being too one dimensional and it allowed the Eng bowlers to dictate. If you started lapping the likes of Jordon, it forces them to look at a plan B.

Anyway, England fully deserved the win and feel they're a good shot at beating either the Windies or India. If they're paying an outsiders $2.20 or thereabouts I'll probably flick a couple of hundred on them.

I was really disappointed with the Anderson - Taylor partnership. Watching those guys poke and prod at deliveries was like having teeth pulled. They really bogged the innings down.

I was really impressed with Sodhi. Surely he gets a long awaited test match in SA. If Mark Craig is rolled out again instead of Ish I'll refuse to watch the series out of protest,.Seriously the guy offers nothing scary anymore.

 

[Zinzan]

I was really disappointed with the Anderson - Taylor partnership. Watching those guys poke and prod at deliveries was like having teeth pulled. They really bogged the innings down.

I was really impressed with Sodhi. Surely he gets a long awaited test match in SA. If Mark Craig is rolled out again instead of Ish I'll refuse to watch the series out of protest,.Seriously the guy offers nothing scary anymore.

It's more common than not for both Anderson and Taylor to get stuck like that. Obviously both can be devastating strikers on their day, but they're too low percentage to consistently deliver and Anderson really seems to bat with fear, certainly his body language suggests that. That last 5 overs was close to the worst finishing I've ever seen batting first in any colour clothing cricket with wickets in hand, let alone of T20 match.

On Sodhi, as impressive as he's been and as much as I don't rate Craig, I'm not convinced Sodhi would do much better in white clothing. To me he's still a short-form specialist for now, but let's hope that changes.

 

[hendrix]

Sodhi has been excellent but what makes you think his test game will be any better than the last time he was tried?

 

[Zinzan]

Sodhi has been excellent but what makes you think his test game will be any better than the last time he was tried?

Stole my thunder on my edit.