England vs New Zealand: T20 World Cup Semi-Final – LIVE!

It’s time for Anthem, a chance to see which players are taller than their teammates. Kyle Jamieson, who isn’t even in the NZ team, is so tall he could be a shot by Liam Livingstone.

“England may not be in tip-top shape with the loss of Roy, Stokes and others,” Luciano Howard says. Something tells me that a “but” is coming. “But, the important thing is that in T20s it is about hitting. And here England has the firepower – lots of it – like you said. England mastered the chase in 50 overs of cricket. Here they will master the goal setting. Then it’s all about the pressure, and while New Zealand are the definition of calm, England have proved their mettle there as well.” Looks like we’re going for a tie.

The first email of the day, brilliantly, comes from a Kiwi in Sweden. “Speaking from New Zealand’s point of view,” says Ben Bernards, “and fully appreciating that one must only use all 11 batsmen for a pitiful collapse, any time Southee has two or more players in the bottom.” are in sequence, which makes me uncomfortable. Damn rain of sixes on Test debut, that’s number one. 1 1!” Yes. If that’s your biggest concern, aren’t you secretly being quite optimistic?

England 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Jos Buttler (wk), 3 David Malan, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Eoin Morgan (c), 7 Sam Billings, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.

So Bairstow opened, England batted deep, their fielding got even better, but the bowling could be a touch light – and they’d have to deal with the dew. Morgan is honest enough to tell Nasser Hussain that he would have bowled earlier as well.

New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Daryl Mitchell, 3 Kane Williamson (c), 4 Devon Conway (wkt), 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Adam Milne, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Trent Boult.

Simon Burnton is on the field and keeping his eye on England’s pre-match huddle. “Sam Billings is getting a back-slap,” he reports. “Looks like he’s got permission to replace Jason Roy.” And, in turn, that probably means Bairstow moves on to open with Butler.

Afternoon all, and welcome to the most mouth watering match ever in this World Cup. England vs New Zealand, it must be said, was not always a competition to get the juices flowing. For decades it was exhaustingly one-sided, then tight-lipped but silent. You would have to face long odds when these two countries face off in the World Cup final, let alone the greatest cliffhanger in cricket history. And now they are in Abu Dhabi, facing the world champions of Test cricket, the holders of the 50-over World Cup.

If there is any justice, New Zealand will win by a big margin. But the game’s devs reserve the right to be playful at all times, and on paper that sounds pretty close to the call. Kane Williamson has a strong seam attack, led by Adam Milne, who has become a star. Eoin Morgan has the edge on spin, thanks to the reliable Adil Rashid and the resurgent Moeen Ali. England have more injuries, and may miss Jason Roy badly, but he also has more firepower. Even when a Masterblaster is out, there are still three left – Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone. And then there is Moin, who is a mastercarer.

England have an all-time great captain Morgan, even though he has borrowed half of his ideas from the country he is facing today. NZ have Williamson, a man so calm and calm that he can claim his team can look back on the 2019 World Cup final “lovingly”. Either side will make a worthy finalist this time around, and NZ have more momentum, having pulled out of one of their bad days early on.

It should be a treat. The game starts at 2pm UK time – join me around 1.35am for news on the toss and teams.