31st March

I've been away from my laptop for a few days, so apologies for the lateness of this blogpost, but World T20 time!

England Through...

A phenomenal display of batting from the arguably understated Jason Roy saw England power their way into the World T20 final. It would be fair to describe England's performance against New Zealand as an exceptional team performance, both with bat and ball but in a side led by Hales, Root, Buttler etc, Jason Roy is the man who stood up and, ultimately, won the match for England, by bludgening 78 off 44 deliveries to put New Zealand to the sword as England chased a meager 154 to win. By the time Roy was finally dismissed, England were 110-2 off 12.1 overs, needing just 44 runs off 47 deliveries. The damage was done, the match was over, even after Eoin Morgan secured a golden duck seconds later, just to ramp up the tension a little bit. 

But even though Joe Root and Jos Buttler took their time to milk the singles, when England reached the 17th over, needing 23 from 24, Buttler decided that it was game over, as England plundered two fours and two sixes from the over, and then Buttler hit his third six in four balls off the first ball of the 18th to secure a very comfortable seven wicket win, Root finishing 27* off 22 and Buttler 32* off 17. But it was the incredible performance of Roy that had put England in that winning position, and from the moment he hit four boundaries off the opening over, it was ever in doubt. But he just kept on scoring, keeping the rate way above the required 7.70 that England needed. 16-0 off the first became 36-0 off the third, became 67-0 off the powerplay, with Roy helping himself to 49 off 25 in the opening six overs and from there England never looked like throwing it away. Getting ahead of the rate was always key with Santner and Sodhi in particular to come, but although England's three wickets all fell to the spinners, Hales taming holing out Santner before Sodhi bowled Roy and then in the next ball Morgan made a horrible mess of a straight ball and was plumb LBW, they still milked Santner for 22 runs off his first three overs before Buttler hit the first ball of his fourth for the match-winning six and Sodhi went for 20 off his first three before England put him to the sword in that decisive 17th over, and he finished with 2-42. This is easily as well as anyone has played New Zealand's spinners in this tournament, and England thoroughly deserved to win on the strength of their batting alone. 

But it's unfair not to mention the exceptional performance from England's bowlers in the back ten overs to restrict New Zealand to 153-8, which always looked twenty runs light. Granted, the way England batted they probably could have chased an extra twenty runs, but the fact that they didn't have to really took the pressure off, and there's no way of knowing exactly how much effect the added twenty runs would have had on the scoreboard pressure and hence how that pressure would have affected England, especially when Roy got out. The match was won in the last four overs of New Zealand's innings, and the first four overs of England's, as Stokes and Jordan restricted New Zealand to 5-20 off the final four overs of their innings, Stokes' two overs going for just six runs, at the loss of three wickets. Overall, with New Zealand looking very comfortable at the halfway mark, at 89-1, which wasn't a million miles away from where England were at that stage, they completely fell off the rails, going at less than a run a ball in the final ten overs, and losing wickets left right and center. The catalyst for that was the wicket of Kane Williamson in the 11th over, when Moeen came on to bowl and promptly caught the danger man off his own bowling. Three overs later the other major set batsman, Munro, also holed out and New Zealand never got going again after that. 

But the final word on this has to go to Roy. Because 154 may have looked like a below par score, but there was an awareness that New Zealand's spinners had up until now defended three sub par scores, two of them smaller than this against India and Australia, albeit on more spinning pitches. And if Roy hadn't stepped out and put New Zealand to the sword, then the total could have become increasingly menacing. As it was, Roy made a mockery of the total, putting New Zealand out of the match within a handful of overs, and sticking in long enough to make sure that the job was done in the front ten. The fact that England were well ahead of the rate by the halfway mark meant that they could afford to collapse and still limp home, as New Zealand did. But they didn't collapse, they romped home. And England will feel that whoever they end up facing on Sunday, they will be favourites after this display.

...But England Capitulate

But speaking of collapses, England's women completely and utterly lost their heads as they collapsed from 88-1 off 13 to score just 39 runs off the last seven overs and lose by an agonising five runs, chasing the 132 set by Australia to win. With Charlotte Edwards and Tammy Beaumont getting England off to a terrific start, reaching 50 in less than seven overs, and then 70 in just over ten, the openers falling, leaving England 90-2 off 14 overs, proved the catalyst, as England's middle order completely and utterly failed to bring anything to the party. Sciver and Knight at four and five scored one run between them, Sarah Taylor, who had batted well and looked well set prior to the dismissal of Beaumont, completely lost her mind and played a very stupid shot to give away her wicket, and from there the implosion was all but complete, as the lower order of Brunt, Wyatt and Greenway did their best but the rate had shot up to 21 off the last 2 overs, when they had needed just 45 off 7, and that proved to be just too much. If Root and Buttler had shown how a middle order needs to finish a chase, Sciver, Knight and Taylor showed exactly how not to manage a chase, as a combination of pressure, brainless batting and some excellent work from Australia left England devastated. 

And earlier on, Marsh and Gunn, but Sciver in particular had bowled very well to restrict Australia to 132, with Sciver taking two wickets and a run out, and Marsh and Gunn both taking wickets and going at less than a run a ball, going for 2-40 off their combined 8 overs. 

But the star of the show, certainly as far as Australia were concerned, was the awesome Meg Lanning, Australia's captain, talismanic batter and she batted superbly, scoring 55 off 50 before being incredibly run out by a super throw from Shrubsole, a direct hit when only a direct hit would do. And Lanning also put in an excellent captian's display, using her bowlers at the right times in the right ways to allow them to take wickets and, more importantly, restrict the run rate at the crucial period in the match, with Schutt, Perry, Beams and Osborne bowling four exceptional overs in succession when it mattered, to steal the match. Truth is, this is a painful defeat, and one that England never should have allowed to happen. 

The Hard and Fast Section

• Speaking of annoying defeats: England Football Team, eh?
• Gary Neville sacked by Valencia. Real shame. 
• Remi Garde sacked by Villa. Really pathetic club. 
• And Jack Butland to miss Euro 2016. Crying shame.