England qualified for the Cricket World Cup semifinals for the first time in 27 years on Wednesday with a 119-run win over New Zealand, who are also effectively through to the last four despite a third straight loss.
Jonny Bairstow's second century in a row helped England to 305-8 off their 50 overs, and the Black Caps never looked like chasing down the target after the run-outs of Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor in successive overs left them 69-4.
New Zealand were eventually dismissed for 186 and leapfrogged in the standings by England, who will end the group stage in third place.
New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson told reporters at a post match presser, "It was a tough one really. With the ball we didn't start off great, but naturally Bairstow and Roy are playing really, really nicely and they put away everything and put us under a lot of pressure, and then I think we saw at the halfway stage (of England's innings) that the wicket did change considerably and we were able to then pull back what was looking like a much larger total, which was a good effort and a positive for us.
"But going into that second half we just needed a couple of big partnerships, certainly from the top order and it wasn't there. By no means was it an easy surface to try and gain momentum but at the same time it was important as a batting unit we were able to try and take the game to a position where you might give yourself a chance to win it, but we weren't able to do that."
When asked if he could believe his luck with being run out, Williamson said, "Luck, or lack of? "It's one of those things isn't it. There was a couple of a run out, and one down the leg side, which certainly isn't the best way to start things off in terms of a tough run chase. But once again the English bowlers put us under pressure and I don't know whether that run out came from that, but it's one of those things, so you just sort of move on."
New Zealand is currently two points ahead of fifth-place Pakistan, whose final group game is against Bangladesh at Lord's on Friday, but is highly unlikely to lose its place in the top four because of a far superior net run-rate than its rival. Pakistan must beat Bangladesh by a margin in excess of 300 runs — something never before achieved in ODI history
It means the Black Caps are already preparing to play the first semifinal in Manchester on Tuesday when it will have to find momentum from somewhere, having lost to Pakistan and Australia before its group closer against England.
(With inputs from AP)
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