New Zealand finally have beaten England in an ICC knockout game. The pain of that loss in Lords two years ago is a thing of the past as the Kiwis have defeated Eoin Morgan's England to qualify for the final of the T20 World Cup 2021 for the very first time. And Daryl Mitchell is the man of the moment for New Zealand. The right-hander scored 72 unbeaten runs off 47 balls to win it for New Zealand by five wickets in a game full of twists and turns. He was ably assisted by a resolute Devon Conway (46 runs off 38 balls) and Jimmy Neesham (27 runs off 11 balls) as New Zealand, despite losing two key wickets of Martin Guptill and skipper Kane Williamson won the match. Did Jofra Archer Predict England’s Score vs New Zealand in T20 World Cup 2021 Semifinal? Check To See What He Had Written Seven Years Ago!

But the partnership between Mitchell and Conway yielded 82 runs off 67 balls, which stabilised the Kiwi innings. England once again struck back with Liam Livingstone taking the wickets of Conway and Glenn Phillips. But in walked Neesham helping New Zealand score 23 runs off the 17th over bowled by Chris Jordan. He scored 27 quick runs off just 11 balls and just when it looked like he took the game away, Adil Rashid struck and dismissed him. A Trent Boult-esque moment from the 2019 World Cup final followed for Jonny Bairstow, who almost saved six runs and pulled off a joint catch to dismiss Neesham. But it was not to be as replays showed his knee had touched the boundary padding.

After Neesham's departure, Mitchell, who had been at the crease right from the start, took it upon himself to finish off the match with an over to spare. New Zealand needed 109 runs off the last 10 overs and they got it with one over left. Surely did they avenge their 2019 World Cup final loss in style!

England were put to bat first, something that their captain Morgan did not want and they fielded a new opening combination with Jason Roy ruled out. Jonny Bairstow opened with Jos Buttler but he could not do much, being dismissed for 13 runs off 17 balls. Buttler departed too soon and the onus was left on Dawid Malan (41 runs off 30 balls) and Moeen Ali to take the side to a decent total. A 63-run partnership off 43 balls followed. Ali teed off in the end, scoring fifty off 37 balls. Liam Livingstone also chipped in with 17 important runs. Here are some of the stats from this game:

#New Zealand qualified for their first-ever T20 World Cup final. The only team yet to make it to the T20 World Cup final is South Africa.

#Daryl Mitchell scored his first T20I fifty and also registered his highest score in the format (72 runs).

#New Zealand made it to their second ICC final in a year, after the World Test Championship in June. They beat India in the final to win the inaugural World Test Championship.

#Jos Buttler is now the top scorer of T20 World Cup 2021 with 269 runs.

#Buttler also became the first English batsman to score 250+runs in a single edition of the T20 World Cup.

#Eoin Morgan and Kane Williamson are now the first pair of skippers to encounter each other in three  ICC knockout games- 2016 T20 World Cup semifinal, 2019 World Cup final, T20 World Cup 2021.

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Nov 10, 2021 11:46 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).