New Zealand VS England Played at Sheikh Jayed Stadium ,Abu Dhabi on 10 November 2021
New Zealand 167/5 in 19 Overs (Daryl Mitchell 72 *, Devon Conway 46, James Neesham 27, Liam Livingstone 2/22 ,Cris Woakes 2/36)
England 166/4 (Moeen Ali 51*, David Malan 41, Joss Buttler 29, James Neesham 1/18, Tim Southee 1/24, Adam Mline 1/31, Ish Sodhi 1/32 )
New Zealand Won by 5 Wickets
Player Of The Match: Daryl Mitchell
Emerging black caps Daryl Mitchell (72*) and Devon Conway (46) starred in knocking out tournament favorites England in breath taking semifinal of T20 world cup at Abu Dhabi last night. Put into bat England managed 166/4 in allotted overs.
At innings break the English Lions set target appeared 20 runs too less . But striking two deadly blows Chris Woakes rocked black caps back to the wall. Inform Guptill (4) and Williamson (5) were removed. At 13/2 New Zealand was looking down the barrel. Youngsters Mitchell and Conway batting like Champions weathering the storm piloted the innings putting together match winning 82 runs partnership. Mitchell remained unbeaten on 72 and Conway scored 46. Mitchell had another partnership of 40 with James Neesham (27). Black Caps winning by 5 wickets took a sweet revenge of their 2019 ICC ODI World Cup defeat at Lords. They would now wait for the winner of Australia Pakistan match to be played tonight at Dubai.
England was in sparkling form in Super 12 winning first four of the five matches on the trot before losing momentum to South Africa. They topped the group of death on NRR . New Zealand lost the first match to Pakistan but won the remaining four matches more importantly finishing above another tournament favorites India. It was their fourth semifinal of global cricket tournament across three formats in recent years.
Cool Kane Williams winning the toss put England into bat. In a knock out match usually team winning the toss prefer batting and post a total. But sensing the depth of English batting Kane decided to bowl. England losing Jason Roy through injury pushed John Baristow opening with Josh Buttler. Southee struck early as Williamson took and astonishing catch. Malan (41) and Buttler (29) were looking good. Kane craftily rotating his bowlers kept it tight. None of the English batsmen were given free bees. However Moeen Ali (51*) and Malan (41) negating the left arm spin of Santner managed putting up a fighting score of 166/4 .
Dew started dropping when New Zealand started the chase. Chris Woakes removing Inform Guptill (4) and Williamson (5) brought joy to English camp. They started dreaming at black caps 13/2. But youngsters Mitchell (72*) and Conway (46) batting with the champions like maturity set the solid foundation. Finally Mitchell and Neesham (27) put the icing on the cake. New Zealand winning by 5 wickets took sweet revenge of their dramatic loss of ICC ODI world cup 2019. Mitchell scoring unbeaten 72 in 47 balls striking 4 fours and 4 sixes was adjudged player of the series.
The breath taking semi final of the two evenly matched sides produced yet another thrilling contest.
BDST: 0938 HRS, NOV 11, 2021
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