Mark Wood on Tuesday took the key wicket of Kane Williamson as England booked their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy with an 87-run victory against New Zealand at Cardiff.
New Zealand, set 311 for victory, finished on 223 all out with 39 balls left.
They were in the hunt while captain Williamson, fresh from a hundred in the Black Caps’ opening rain-marred no result against Australia, was making 87.
However, fast bowler Wood made the key breakthrough to dismiss the star batsman.
Then, as happened after Williamson’s departure against Australia, the Black Caps slumped, this time losing their last seven wickets for 55 runs.
Wood’s fellow paceman Jake Ball was named man of the match for a return of 2-31 in eight overs up front.
Victory saw England, who beat Bangladesh by eight wickets at the Oval in their Group A opener, into the last four of a tournament featuring the world’s top eight one-day international (ODI) teams regardless of the result of their last pool fixture against archrivals Australia at Edgbaston on Saturday last week.
Two years ago, New Zealand thrashed England by eight wickets on home soil at the 2015 Cricket World Cup in Wellington.
However, this decisive win was a measure of England’s progress in the 50-over format since that chastening defeat.
England were in danger of falling short of 300 after Joe Root (64), Alex Hales (56) and Ben Stokes (48) all got out when well set.
However, Jos Buttler’s dashing unbeaten 61 off 48 balls, including a couple of extravagant sixes, helped take them to 310 all out.
“We tried to learn from our batting,” England captain Eoin Morgan said at the presentation ceremony. “All our batsmen thought it [the pitch] was two-paced, so we thought there was no value in bowling full. The new-ball bowlers set the tone.”
“Being in the semis is pretty good. We’re not satisfied with that, we have a long way to go before we perform to our potential,” he added.
Williamson, fined 40 percent of his match fee for New Zealand’s slow over rate, accepted his side had been well beaten.
“I think in all areas England outplayed us today,” he said. “It was very tough out there, but credit to the way they went about their business.”
For Ball, who had expensive figures of 1-82 against Bangladesh, this was a welcome return to form.
“It was about trying to put it in the right area and hopefully something would happen,” the Nottinghamshire paceman said. “It was quite blustery out there, but everybody did their fair share into it today.”
“The rain [before and during the match] juiced up the wicket a little bit,” he added.
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