England defeated New Zealand in their second match of ICC Champions Trophy 2017 and became the first team to qualify for the semi-final round of the tournament.
Jake Ball, a disappointment in England's opening day win over Bangladesh, set the tone for England when he removed the unsafe Luke Ronchi in the first over of New Zealand's response.
However, the tourists' chase got off to a awful start with Luke Ronchi dismissed for a golden duck, and though Kane Williamson hit an impressive 87, they were bowled all out for 223 with just over five overs remaining. The victor will then hope England can do them a favour when they take on Australia in an Ashes series precursor at Edgbaston 24 hours later.
It all leaves Bangladesh and New Zealand needing to win in Wales and then hope England put one over their arch-rivals, assuming more bad weather does not disrupt those calculations.
England: Eoin Morgan (captain), Moeen Ali, Jonny Bairstow, Jake Ball, Sam Billings, Alex Hales, Jos Buttler (wicketkeeper), Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Steven Finn.
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With this comprehensive victory, England has moved on to the Semis of the Champions Trophy. The previous meeting had seen New Zealand register an eight-wicket thrashing in Wellington in February of that year, a result that helped to consign a hapless England team to a swift exit from Pool A of the World Cup. New Zealand captain Kane Williamson: "England bowled very, very well".
"We want to win, to keep our momentum going no matter who we are playing, but it is nice to know that would be the outcome if we did win". They always are favourites going into a white ball tournament.
"Obviously the guys are chatting about it constantly, because it's not very far from where we stayed - and a lot of us live near to where it happened". I thought we were in a really good position to go and get 340 but we just seemed to lose wickets.
Victory will put England through to the semifinals of a tournament it has never won and the hosts took a calculated risk in its only change to team selection. The trio weren't overly explosive with the bat but steadily added to the score, as the Black Caps couldn't find the wickets they desperately needed.
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