ICC WORLD T.20:England thrash New zealand by 3 wickets

It was England’s most complete performance in the tournament so far.
And it just goes to show what can happen when you pick the right players and encourage them to have the right attitude.

Guys like Jason Roy, Alex Hales and David Willey were all available to England going into last year’s 50-over World Cup in Australia and New Zealand. But the selectors weren’t brave enough to pick them.

Now that they have, and now that they’re being told to go out and express themselves, we’re seeing something very exciting indeed.

They’ve just wiped the floor with a good New Zealand side, who had won nine out of their last 10 Twenty20 internationals and all four games out here. Everyone had been praising them for reading the conditions and being clever in leaving out their two main seamers, Trent Boult and Tim Southee.

But England played like a side who didn’t fear them. In fact, they’re playing like a side who don’t fear anyone. That’s not to say they’ll beat whoever they come up against on Sunday at Eden Gardens. But I can’t see this team fretting too much about what lies in wait. That’s the beauty of this bunch of lads.

The way Roy played was world-class. He’s been threatening to do that for a while, to be honest, and he was outstanding from the very first over.





Before them, though, Chris Jordan in particular was excellent at the death. To help restrict New Zealand to 64 for seven off the final 10 overs was an incredible effort. Jordan’s starting to come of age.


Some people may wonder about the form of Eoin Morgan, and clearly the captain would like to be scoring more runs.


But the assistant coach Paul Farbrace mentioned Kumar Sangakkara the other day, who hadn’t scored a run for Sri Lanka in the tournament two years ago, then played a match-winning innings in the final against India.


England would still like Morgan to show up on Sunday, and my only hope is that he’s not over-analysing things. He’s at his best when he trusts his instincts. But, let’s be frank: he’d take another failure in Kolkata if he ends up lifting the trophy.


Can England go all the way? Of course. But it will take some doing. West Indies have already shown how good they can be, despite that defeat by Afghanistan.


And India will be a hugely difficult prospect on a surface that will be the most alien England will have encountered after enjoying the ball coming on to the bat in Delhi and especially Mumbai.


But it’s the kind of challenge this group of players can rise to. They’re certainly not going to lose any sleep over it. They just have to trust in what has got them to the final in the first place: a no-fear philosophy – and a hell of a lot of talent.