On a dreary afternoon in Cardiff, England confirmed their place in the ICC Trophy Semi Finals after an impressive bowling performance which saw James Tredwell and James Anderson take 6 wickets between them after rain delayed the final group game and resulted in only 24 overs being played.
New Zealand won the toss and chose to bowl first giving Alastair Cook and Ian Bell the chance to continue their fine batting performances so far in the competition, and that's exactly what Cook did, less can be said for Bell though who was dismissed off only 8 balls, caught by Brendan McCullum and bowled by Mitchell McClenaghan. Trott was also dismissed quickly, taking just 6 balls until Brendan's older brother Nathan took the catch from Kyle Mills bowling.
However Captain Cook was not fazed by the early wickets and continued to produce some exquisite shots which helped him to his 16th half century in ODI's. He was later dismissed though for 64 runs off 47 balls when Nathan McCullum's ball was hit straight down the wicket by Cook before McCullum took the catch and sent England 4 wickets down after Joe Root was caught by the Kiwi keeper Luke Ronchi four overs earlier.
Eoin Morgan and Jos Butler tried to keep the run rate up but were both dismissed after Morgan fell to an LBW and Butler was caught by Williamson, then came England's downfall, with a potential 200 runs on the card England were looking to apply some later pressure but all of the four batsmen remaining, Bopara, Bresnan, Broad and Tredwell all failed to get into double figures with Broad and Tredwell both going for ducks.
England 169/10 23.3 Overs
New Zealand came into bat knowing they had to achieve a run rate of just over 7 an over to send them through to the semi finals but they got off to the worst possible start when both their openers, Ronchi and Martin Guptill were both dismissed in single figures by Anderson leaving themselves an uphill task to win the match.
But then came Kane Williamson who restored hope for the Kiwis and managed a half century in relatively quick fashion. However the run rate was all but increasing and England took advantage of a midway crisis in New Zealand's batting, Ross Taylor firstly being falling for an LBW from Tim Bresnan, this was followed by Brendan McCullum being caught by Root from Ravi Bopara. James Franklin went out after hitting 6 runs off as many balls but Corey Anderson gave the Kiwis some hope as he and Williamson started to make progress.
It all became too much though as Williamson was dismissed for 67 off 54 when Broad's ball was caught excellently by Anderson which was immediately followed an over later by another catch from Anderson, this time bowled by Bresnan. McCullum attempted to show some fight but it was too little to late for New Zealand and they fell 10 runs short of getting anything out of the game.
New Zealand 159/8 24 Overs
For England they now face a semi-final showdown with South Africa with the other semi-final between India, winner of Group B against runners up of Group A, Sri Lanka.
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