England fly to the final – World T20

By Lee Dolbear

• Kiwis set England a robust 154 to win
• Roy and Buttler smash England to victory
• England await West Indies or India

DELHI, INDIA – England scorch Kiwis target in no time to reach the finals

England captain Eoin Morgan won the toss and asked New Zealand to bat.

Martin Guptill (15) wasted no time in dispatching the first ball from David Willey over square for a boundary, but his cameo was cut short when Jos Buttler caught him behind snicking the first ball of Willeys’ second over.

Colin Munro scored a hefty 46 before being caught and bowled by Moeen Ali and there were dangerous contributions by Kiwi skipper Kane Williamson (32) and Corey Anderson (28) helping New Zealand to 153/8. Ben Stokes being the star of the England attack sending Luke Ronchi (3), Anderson and Santner (7) all back to the hutch, finishing with 3/26 from his 4 overs.

In reply the England openers Jason Roy and Alex Hales weren’t messing about – Roy in particular smashing the ball square and straight.

Hales (20) was the first to be dismissed caught at long on by Colin Munro giving Mitchell Santner his tenth wicket in the tournament. Roy who scored a swashbuckling 78 in 44 balls was then outfoxed by a Ish Santi ball, next delivery Santi claimed captain Morgan plumb leg before for a duck.

Buttler faced the hat-trick ball and smothered it with England in a state of panic. But then Root (27*) and Buttler (32*) took over, stood firm and smashed the Three Lions into the final on Sunday, winning by seven wickets.

After the amazing victory England skipper Morgan told Sky Sports “We play an aggressive brand of cricket with the bat, and we’ve generally got real confidence in ourselves at the moment which is fantastic. We’ve been led really well by Jason Roy and Alex Hales at the top throughout the tournament. To get to the final is the kind of thing you dream of as a kid – everybody in that changing room has worked tremendously hard, made a lot of sacrifices over this past year in order to put us in this position. Hopefully it’s our day on Sunday”

Man of the match Roy also told Sky Sports “I went out there trying to get the team off to a good start and thankfully it came off for me tonight and we won quite convincingly. It was a decent wicket, but we needed a great start as it was a tricky total to chase. I gave it a crack, and it came off, getting a few boundaries early, and then kicked on from there. I just looked at the runs needed and tried to knock them off, I didn’t want to let the pressure of the occasion get to me.”