Ball bites back to fire bold England into semi-finals

Their batsmen reached 310, despite there being three fifties, a 48, no century and three balls unused at the end — but that is their way sometimes.

They back one another and keep playing positively. Somebody usually plays the superior innings, and yesterday it was Jos Buttler with a marvellous 61 not out off 48 balls.

This was the fifth time that England had passed 300 in seven one-day internationals since the start of May. This is one seriously dangerous batting unit.

But the bowlers really stepped up in Cardiff too, particularly at the beginning of New Zealand’s innings when Jake Ball bowled Luke Ronchi first ball and did not concede a run until his 18th delivery.

Ball has suffered of late — being carted for more than 80 runs in two of his three previous ODIs — but this was a tremendous riposte. He bowled a superb length, looking to hit the pitch aggressively, as rain probably enhanced the resultant seam movement.

England had backed Ball and had also surprisingly included Adil Rashid, the leg spinner, despite the short straight boundaries. “He has always bowled well against New Zealand,” Morgan said. And he did so again.

Mark Wood and Liam Plunkett were highly impressive too, with Plunkett taking four wickets and Wood coming back in his second spell to take the vital wicket of Kane Williamson.

“The bowlers were truly the highlight of the day,” Morgan said. “As a collective unit they were brilliant.”

It meant that New Zealand always had to work exceptionally hard for their runs. And while Williamson is no stranger to such graft, reaffirming that with a wonderful 87, once he was gone, so were their chances of victory.

He found a willing ally in Ross Taylor, but the problem was that, after Taylor had gone too, his team’s middle-to-late order was full of hitters who needed the sort of glue that Williamson can supply.

So there was huge disappointment when the captain went, caught behind off Wood, not least from Williamson himself, who left shaking his head and gesturing at the pitch.

The ball he had gloved to Buttler behind the stumps had reared sharply. The pitch, though, was not a minefield — nowhere near it, even if some indifferent bounce was probably exaggerated by England’s “cross-seam” tactic — but you suspected that New Zealand thought it was in those middle overs.

A negative mind is always destructive and the end for New Zealand thereafter was rather tame, losing their final seven wickets for 65, as they were all out for 223, with 5.3 overs remaining.

The one negative for England was another failure for opener Jason Roy, and you do wonder how long this can go on. In his past eight one-day international innings he has scored 64 runs, with a top score of only 20. By contrast, his opening partner Alex Hales has scored 434 runs in the same period, with five scores over fifty, including one century.

There must be some sympathy for Roy, though. He has to be selfless. He is there to get his side off to a flyer. He has to be aggressive and there is no time to think of personal struggles. He was a lot more circumspect than usual, making 13 from 23 balls. When he crunched Tim Southee through the covers for four in the first over, there was hope that his touch might be returning.

But it wasn’t. He decided that he wanted to move well across his stumps to Adam Milne and initially it worked when Milne countered it by bowling wider of off stump. Roy hit him through mid-off for four.

Two balls later, Roy moved across his stumps again. This time Milne aimed at leg stump. And, admittedly via pad, he was bang on target. Roy was gone. He swished his bat angrily above the stumps.

Hales and Joe Root put on 81. They make a good partnership. Hales clubs it, Root caresses it. Hales went to fifty in 60 balls, though Root was even quicker, off 52 balls, but not before Hales had been deceived by Milne’s slower cutter that struck his middle stump.

England had success against Kane Williamson with the short ball.

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Ben Stokes arrived and immediately played some jaw-dropping shots. The power of his punched drive truly is remarkable. Root moved to 64 but there were signs of frustration in his play as he lost the strike, and it resulted in his bottom-edging Corey Anderson on to his stumps.

Stokes went soon afterwards, upper-cutting to third man, and there was a real danger that England were going to fall well short of a par score, which Morgan felt was about 320.

Buttler realised this and reined in his game early on before exploding into life at the right time. His ramp for six off Trent Boult, sailing towards the River Taff and almost taking out a cameraman in the process, was quite incredible.

One group match remains for England and they could send Australia home. Dead match? No chance.