England entered the World Cup semifinals for the first time since the 1992 edition, beating an erring New Zealand by 119 runs to fuel their “dream” of winning a maiden title.
Jonny Bairstow, who smashed 106 off 99 balls to become thefirst Englishman to score back-to-back hundreds in a World Cup, was mainlyresponsible for taking the hosts to 305 for eight on a pitch that got slower asthe game progressed.
New Zealand did well to limit England to a little over 300,considering the start provided by Bairstow and Jason Roy (60 off 61) who sharedan entertaining 123-run stand after Eoin Morgan opted to bat.
However, moments of brilliance from England and someordinary cricket from the Black Caps led to their downfall as they folded upfor 186 in 45 overs.
New Zealand, who lost their last three leagues games to endwith 11 points from nine games, remain in hunt to clinch the fourth and finalsemifinal spot.
They have a much better net run rate than Pakistan who havenine points and must beat Bangladesh by a big margin in their final leaguematch to have any hopes of pipping New Zealand for the remaining semifinalberth.
England, on the contrary, have got their act togetherfollowing the defeats against Sri Lanka and Australia. The pre-tournamentfavourites again look like the team to beat having gotten the better of Indiaand New Zealand. If things stand on the points table as they are, second-placedIndia will meet third-placed England in the semifinals.
A professional performance on Wednesday have raised hopes ofEngland finally winning their maiden World Cup following heart-breaking lossesin three finals (1979, 1987 and 1992).
New Zealand, who lost to England for the first time in aWorld Cup since the 1983 edition, were virtually out of the game after losingtheir top four for 69 runs. Both their key players, captain Kane Williamson(27) and Ross Taylor (28), were run out to leave their team in deep trouble.
Williamson, who was backing up too far, was rather unluckyas Mark Wood found a deft touch on his follow through. In the following over,Taylor went for a risky second run which was avoidable at that juncture of thegame. The fatal run-outs came after New Zealand lost their openers, MartinGuptill and Henry Nicholls, early in the chase to leave them at 37 for two in10 overs.
Earlier, Bairstow, who had smashed 111 against India inEngland’s previous contest, raced to his ninth ODI hundred, to lay a perfectplatform in a virtual quarterfinal.Openers Jason Roy (60 off 61) and Bairstow werein punishing mood, sharing a century stand for the second game in a row.Bairstow looked in ominous touch again, hitting as many 15 fours and a six inhis enthralling knock.