England vs New Zealand T20 live: score and latest updates from World Cup semi final
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Jos Buttler exclusive: What it is really like to play for Eoin Morgan
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On OffMilne will continue with his third over and they take six off it, four singles and a two. Both are striking at 100 or more but they need to accelerate now. They need at least 60 off the last six.
Sodhi returns and begins with a wide. Moeen strides down the pitch to tap a single through mid-on, Malan reverse sweeps for another - brilliant diving stop by point saves three. Malan's arms are glistening with sweat, as slick as Adama Traore's after a slap of Vaseline. After a couple of singles, Moeen slaps a cut square of point for four off the last ball. That was the juiciest of pies to finish off.
Milne comes back into the attack and after Moeen works a single though midwicket, Malan drives through cover for what looked like another four but Phillips bullocks round and hauls it back so they run three instead. Milne opts for a tighter line and keeps them down to a pair of singles and Moeen can't fetch the slow bouncer as it floated gently away from his bat. Just a single off the last ball, too, as Moeen slaps a low full toss to the cover sweeper.
If #NZ are going to protect their right-to-left spinners with Neesham & Phillips, #ENG have to take them both (but definitely Phillips) on. They can't let these overs slip by. #T20WorldCup
— Freddie Wilde (@fwildecricket) November 10, 2021
After a drink, Williamson turns to a seventh bowler, the off-spin of Glenn Phillips. Moeen drives uppishly to long off for one and then Malan unwraps the cover drive again and smears it for four. His attempt at a reverse sweep, though, is not as elegant and he almost falls over. After that dot ball Malan reverts to Plan A and cover drives stylishly for four more. Moeen turns down a tight second to wide mid-on, chased down by the bowler, and slaps one to midwicket to pinch the strike off the last ball. Eleven off the over.
With two left-handers in, Williamson withdraws the slow left-armer Santner and brings on Jimmy Neesham and his right-arm dob.
Moeen drives a single to the cover sweeper, Malan is dropped by the wicketkeeper diving to his left off a thick edge and they run a single. Conway shakes his head. Moeen pulls for one more then Malan ends this over, like the last, with a sweetly timed drive for four high over cover that spins away from the diving fielder.
Time for drinks.
England promote Moeen to No4 and he starts with an off-drive down the ground for a single. Malan squeezes another down to long-off and Moeen works the leg-break through midwicket. Malan ends the over in style with a creamy lofted cover drive for four.
Buttler lbw b Sodhi 29 Three reds reverse sweeping the leg-spinner. Absolutely plumb. England lose a review. FOW 53/2
Buttler lbw b Sodhi He was reverse-sweeping. Did he underedge it? Don't think so.
Malan drops to one knee, targeting cow corner but bottom edges the slog sweep for merely a single. Buttler, who is never as dominant against the ball moving away from the right-hander, is stymied when driving by the turn so reverse sweeps the next one for four. The orthodox paddle brings him two to long leg but his second attempt at the reverse is cut off by short third and he drives the last through mid-on for a single to retain the strike.
NZ turn to spin now they can post sentries on the boundary. If only Bairstow had been in to face spin ... Malan and Buttler exchange singles then Malan is beaten on the cut by a googly before chopping a single off a shorter one. Buttler drives through cover for one and Malan steps back to slap one to the same position with a vertical bat.
Santner will make it spin from both ends.
Malan comes out at No3 with five balls left of the PowerPlay following Williamson's sensational catch. No blame on Bairstow there. It was driveable and Williamson took a blinder. Malan inside edges on to his pad for a single to square leg to give Buttler the strike but the opener cannot pierce the infield until Milne drops short and he control pulls for a single to midwicket, rolling his wrists and just stroking it. Milne is getting the ball to skid on and beats Malan for pace, striking him on the pad with one that pitched outside leg stump. Malan gets away with another leg-glance, more pad than bat. That's the PowerPlay done.
Bairstow c Williamson b Milne 13 Strikes with his first delivery, Williamson taking a fine diving catch at mid-off off a thumping drive. They check for a fair catch but Williamson was brilliant in lifting his wrists to ensure it didn't kiss the turf. FOW 37/1
Southee continues for a third PowerPlay over and Bairstow smacks the slower ball back over his head for four. They appeal for leg-before when one keeps low but it was heading down. This pitch has two faces/paces. Bairstow claws a drive with a closed face wide of mid-on then Buttler bottom-edges a cut for a single to fine leg. Bairstow finishes with an off-drive for one more.
Lovely stroke from Buttler, a straight drive with no footwork but with a clever twist of the right wrist to close the face and beat Williamson at mid-off. The next is a bit shorter and Buttler, staying legside, reaches for it and thumps it through cover for four. Huge bouncer climbs miles over Buttler and the keeper for five wides. England double their score off the first three balls of the over.
Williamson stops another off-drive, they run a single but the NZ skipper throws down the stumps and England steal a second as it ricochets off the poles for a buzzer. Another short ball from Boult but this one does not get up and barely vaults the stumps as Buttler's bat goes over the top of it on the pull. The opener connects with the last one, pinching the strike by rolling his wrists on a pull down to long leg.
Not a fluent start so far from England. Buttler plays a defensive push for a single through cover and Bairstow is struck on the leg again, too high for an appeal, when he walks down the pitch to Southee. Expert line and length from the Master of Whangarei and Bairstow is unable to pierce the infield either with bat or via his pads for leg-byes.
Trent Boult, 32 like Southee, will share the new ball. The first shapes and angles in from over the wicket, Bairstow plays the left-armer into the legside then misses out on a pull that keeps a little low, striking him well outside the line. Boult bowls a jaffa that swings in then nips away as Bairstow gropes after it. What a bowler he is, the caggy-handed Jimmy.
Bairstow gets weaving with a clump for two through mid-off then sways out of the way of a chest-high bumper before bottom-edging a square cut past the keeper's left hand for four. Yikes, he almost dragged it on.
Southee starts with a short ball and Buttler pulls it off his ribs for a single. All the pre-match talk of swing and Southee bangs the first one in. Men on the boundary at long leg and third man. Bairstow's firts ball is piched up and he drives but doesn't beat cover, then plays tip and run to mid-on, a larcenous single but both whippets make it home comfortably.
The fourth ball does swing and Buttler drives and misses as it arcs away. After being struck on the pad by one angling down, Buttler whips the last one off middle and leg behind square leg for four.
Tim Southee with the new ball after the players take a knee.
Malan is indeed padded up. So he looks likely bat at three.
For Mohan Singh, the chief curator of the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, who died on Sunday.
For the anthems. Only Jos and Jonny are padded up so we don't know who will bat at three - Dawid Malan, as he would on the scorecard, or Liam Livingstone, as advocated by Messrs Pietersen and Key.
Kevin Pietersen is in the studio with 'Bob' Key and 'Wardy'. He thinks that England's loss of Roy and Mills plus losing the toss means New Zealand will win today.
Batting first they have won 11 of 18, losing seven, a win percentage of 61 per cent. Fielding first they have won 23 (including one via a Super Over) of 36, a win rate of 64 per cent.
The pitch is dead centre so there isn't a shorter boundary. The last four first innings scores at Abu Dhabi are:
Sri Lanka 189
West Indies 157
India 210
Afghanistan 124.
Should be a good place to bat.
England Jos Buttler (wk), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (capt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
New Zealand Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (capt), Devon Conway (wk), Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.
And put England in to bat.
England in Andrew Prevue style, all the right names but not necessarily in the right order Jos Buttler (wk), Jonny Bairstow, Dawid Malan, Eoin Morgan (capt), Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Billings, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid, Mark Wood.
New Zealand Martin Guptill, Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson (capt), Devon Conway (wk), Glenn Phillips, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Adam Milne, Tim Southee, Ish Sodhi, Trent Boult.
Suggest that Sam Billings is in the XI, having received the most vigorous of back slaps in the England huddle. NZ, who have picked the same side for the past three matches, will be unchanged.
... to bang on about the events of July 14 2019. But if you would like to remember that wonderful day, be my guest.
Five years ago in Delhi, England met New Zealand in the first semi-final of the last Twenty20 World Cup, won the toss, put them into bat and won convincingly by seven wickets with 17 balls to spare. Counter-intuitively, for those who believe England have had a fairly settled team since the humiliation at the 2015 World Cup brought radical reform, only five of England's XI from that day will start this match. And the two most notable absentees are the two match-winners - Ben Stokes, who took three for 26 and ominously cemented his place as England's 20th-over specialist, and Jason Roy who marmalised 78 off 44 balls.
Eoin Morgan, Jos Buttler, Moeen Ali, Chris Jordan and Adil Rashid of that team all return, four of them for their second WT20 semi-final, Morgan for his third after starting by winning with England in 2010.
England's record in semi-finals - ***JINX ALERT*** - is remarkably good, winning four of six in the World Cup, two of four in the Champions Trophy and both previous attempts in this competition. Where they have come unstuck is on sticky pitches - at Cardiff in 2017, Centurion in 2009 and twice under clouds at Headingley in 1975 and Old Trafford in 1983.
Their batting was characteristically fluent at Abu Dhabi when defeating Bangladesh in the group stage, but then again when you restrict the opposition to 124, it usually is. New Zealand also chased a low total successfully at the same ground, knocking off 125 with 11 balls to spare when beating Afghanistan in their final group game. They won the toss only once in five group games, putting the opposition in when they had the choice, as they would almost certainly do today. Three of eight matches at Abu Dhabi during the group stage were won by teams batting first but all of them were against Namibia.
Games against New Zealand are always tight and with their stellar bowling line-up of Trent Boult, the born again Tim Southee, Adam Milne, Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner they have all the variety and skill to beat anyone. Too many of these games have gone to the wire to be comfortable about predicting anything but the make-up of England's - Sam Billings or a bowler for Jason Roy? - will give us a hint about how worried England are by that bowling line-up.
The match starts at 2pm. Join us for all the build-up.