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A game dominated by spin and played on a turning wicket was decided in the space of a few minutes and by a decisive, savage twist. Just as it looked like England’s progress through the World Cup was the only thing that was destined to stay on a familiar, predictable path Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks thrashed 22 runs off the 18th over of the innings and turned the game, and the group, in their team’s favour.
The over, bowled by Glenn Phillips, started with England needing an improbable 43 off 18 and ended with 21 required off 12. Ahmed started the next with a reverse-sweep for four and ended it by smearing over long-off for six and suddenly England needed five off the last over. It took them three balls, with victory in the end secured by four wickets.
It was a stunning introduction to the tournament for Ahmed, picked ahead of Jamie Overton because of his ability to bowl spin and, with bat in hand, to punish it. He took two wickets in three overs and scored 19 off seven balls. Meanwhile, Jacks was once again England’s match-winner, also taking two wickets – and conceding only 23 runs from four overs – before hitting 32 off 18, including the winning boundary. England have played seven games at this tournament and this was Jacks’ fourth player of the match award.
New Zealand’s defeat gives Pakistan, who play Sri Lanka on Saturday, hope of stealing a semi-final place with an emphatic win, even if the required result – victory by 64 runs, or a chase completed in 13.1 overs – seems improbable. England will almost certainly play in Mumbai against whichever team wins the game between India and West Indies in Kolkata on Sunday.
The game’s intoxicating conclusion will not quite expunge the memories of what preceded it and in particular the continued travails of England’s top order. Matt Henry, due to depart Sri Lanka imminently to be with his wife, Holly, for the birth of their second child, produced a screaming delivery to dismiss Phil Salt, caught behind four balls into England’s innings.
Then Lockie Ferguson did likewise to account for Jos Buttler, whose two-ball duck means he has now scored 15 off 27 across his past five innings, abject form for which platitudes about the inevitability of his clicking back into gear feel increasingly insufficient. For the second game in a row, both openers were caught behind having scored two and none.
Again Harry Brook came in at No 3, but after his astonishing century off 51 balls against Pakistan, this innings lasted about half as long – 24 balls – and produced about a quarter of the runs, 26. He moved constantly around his crease in an effort to confuse the opposition bowlers and with his best shot also had the stadium electricians scratching their heads – flicking the ball over square-leg and into the big screen for six, leaving a few pixels permanently darkened.
But soon it was England’s chances of victory that were looking gloomy, Brook holing out to long-off from the bowling of Phillips in the eighth over and Jacob Bethell pulling Rachin Ravindra to deep midwicket in the next, where Phillips took a superlative low catch, and it felt the game, like the ball, was in New Zealand’s grasp.
They had appeared to take control of the game from the beginning. England had romped to 18 powerplay wickets in their first six World Cup matches but for the first time they failed to make a breakthrough in the opening overs. Jofra Archer might have felt aggrieved about that having tortured Tim Seifert at times, particularly in the first over, inducing a succession of false shots. It was a maiden, after which Seifert and Finn Allen set about wresting – or more accurately clubbing – momentum their side’s way.
New Zealand’s momentum survived the loss of both openers in consecutive overs and by the end of the 13th they were on 116 for three and on course for a score close to 200. And then they were not. England’s 16 overs of spin were the most they have ever bowled in a T20 and from the sixth over onwards England’s tactic was total turners – in the second half of the innings in particular some balls turned extravagantly.
Phillips in particular may still be wondering how a Jacks delivery that was angled innocently across him ended up hitting middle and off. It was not the last time he was to experience things spinning out of his control.
