England vs New Zealand: Old Blighty unveils new avatar

England have out-thought and outlasted the team that was considered comprising the sharpest of thinkers and the smartest of executioners. Surely, New Zealand had taken adaptability to a different pedestal in this tournament, but England by their sheer willfulness, that atypical English trait, upended them.

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If England didn’t have the will, or the belief, they wouldn’t have pegged back from a juncture wherein the match was drifting away from them, and drifting away quite expeditiously. England teams, until the recent past, or until they retooled their perceptions in that exhilarating series against New Zealand last year, would have panicked and then caved in. But even when Kane Williamson and Colin Munro were stitching up a potentially match-defining partnership, through contrasting methods, one with brute force and the other with nonchalant silk, they never surrendered their belief. They still fielded with the urgency and intensity of a man living on the brink. And, at 91 for 1 in 10.3 overs, they were practically on the brink.

That was when Morgan introduced Moeen Ali, whose economy rate in the tournament was lurching into double digits. But with his third ball – as routine a delivery as a left-arm spinner bend on containment does – he induced a false stroke of Williamson, a few balls after he had stroked the most glorious of sixes the Kotla crowd has witnessed in recent times. Williamson’s judgment seemed dazed for a split-second as he shaped to sweep a delivery that Moeen had flighted more than he usually does. And he ran back briskly to swallow the miscued effort. You are left wondering why Williamson – he of those limitless range of strokes – attempted something as banal as that.

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Impressive Ali

But it wasn’t still all grim for New Zealand – for there was Munro, in brutal mood, then Corey Anderson, Ross Taylor, Grand Elliot, Luke Ronchi and even Mitchell Santner. But slowly, drip by drip, England unhinged New Zealand. Then Morgan took a gamble, he recalled Adil Rashid, whose two previous overs had leaked 20 runs. The leggie, with a propensity to feed batsmen with at least a brace of boundary balls an over, could be torn apart, or he could get you a wicket. He didn’t get a wicket, but he slipped in with an over that cost just three runs. Ali gave just seven in his next. Anderson and Munro – both unused to such docile phase, were feeling a touch tetchy. They could have as well nudged and needled along, but those weren’t their instincts. It was here perhaps they were missed the calmness of a more judicious batsman. Someone like Williamson or even Ross Taylor. Promoting the latter could have worked.

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Both vented out pressure with boundaries off Rashid and Moeen, but both were high-risk shots, Munro’s a switch-hit and Anderson’s a cross-batted swat past the bowler. Two overs of seven runs each, England had gradually clawed back into the contest. Morgan sensed it opportune to send for his most reliable bowler of the tournament, Liam Plunkett. He struck with his second legal ball of the over, feeding width to Munro, who impetuously sliced it to third man, where again Moeen showed composure. Only five runs were managed from the over. But New Zealand were still on course for a competitive tally. And so it seemed, when Anderson smeared Rashid for a boundary and Plunkett for a six off successive overs, of which were accrued 22 runs.

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What unfolded then owed as much as to the unflagging discipline of English bowlers Chris Jordan and Ben Stokes as much as the brain-fade of Kiwi batsmen. Maybe, they had set their sights on a total upwards of 180, and in its frenetic pursuit, disintegrated. Jordan, a recalibrated force since the Sri Lanka match, suddenly found the needful rhythm to bowl yorkers consistently. Taylor and Anderson, as though surprised by England’s wherewithal, tried to manufacture shots, and duly perished. It was such a day that whatever New Zealand did, they couldn’t quite pull it off, as though the cricketing gods were conspiring against them. Jordan nailed Taylor, while in one bizarre over, Stokes accounted for Luke Ronchi and Anderson off successive full-tosses. Consequently, New Zealand made just 33 runs in the last five overs. Stokes’ last two overs cost just eight, and Jordan’s last three just 15.

Deja vu

Openers Jason Roy, with a less fluent Alex Hales, the snuffed the contest out with a belligerent stand, reminiscent of the carnage unleashed by Michael Lumb and Craig Kieswetter in the semifinal of the 2010 World Cup in the Caribbean. They had then made 68 in 8.1 overs, here they reeled off 82 in 8.2 overs, before the irrepressible Joe Root wrapped it off, like then talisman Kevin Pieteresen. They they had made short work of the rampaging Sri Lankans, the New Zealand of that tournament.

Morgan almost blushes every time a parallel is drawn with the batch of 2010 and his own. He nevertheless points out a few similarities. “Quite a few actually. The main one would be how relaxed everybody is around the grou. It’s all about having fun and enjoying what you are doing. If you don’t have the drive to always want to improve, to win a game of cricket, you stand still for a long time, this side has showed strength which is similar to that 2010 (group),” he said.

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Like now, not even the most optimistic of English supporters would have fancied their chances. They had a coach one year into his tenure. They were lampooned for their frailties in limited-over fixtures. They had a skipper under fire and a bunch or wet-behind-the-ear youngsters whose mettle at this stage remained largely untested. And then, a coincidence which Morgan wouldn’t want to be reminded, a captain who cut a forlorn figure with the bat.

Collingwood managed only 61 runs in the entire tournament. Morgan’s tally is exactly the same. But he wouldn’t his rotten form if he were to replicate Collingwood’s feat. As for New Zealand, their litany of semifinal defeats continue, and they are the new inhabitants of England’s familiar territory.