#CWC15 day 7: #NZvEng

After couple of clashes between minnows we are back to main teams. On one hand we have England the team which has quality bowlers but their batsmen have to answer lot of questions. While on other hand we have New Zealand which is looking quite balanced and searching for another win against England.

Game 9: New Zealand vs England

Morgan won the toss and elected to bat first. There was not much swing in the pitch. Pitch was good for batting so Morgan took that decision. Bell and Ali started playing their shots without wasting much time. There wasn't much swing in the pitch but the ball was seaming a bit. Southee took advantage of it and disturbed Bell's furniture in the 5th over and in the same over Ali hit 3 consecutive boundaries to Southee. It was that kind of pitch. It was clear that the bowler who is going to bowl full and seam a bit will surely get wickets. Southee picked that up pretty quickly. Southee webbed a trap around Ali. He bowled two short balls to start the over and then full seaming yorker and he Knocked Ali over with that delivery as Ali wasn't expecting it.

Root and Ballance tried to stabilize the innings but Ballance was not able to find out the right balance in the middle and got out in 14th over. Morgan came out to the crease then. He came out in the middle with the burden of lot of ducks. So obviously he was very cautious as he didn't wanted another duck to his name. He was very slow in the start while Root was getting boundaries on regular intervals. Morgan started playing his typical cover drives and reverse sweeps but was playin lot of dot balls too. Thus Vettori used his experience and made him play over the top under pressure and Milne took stunner to dismiss him. Morgan got out at the total of 104.

McCullum brought Southee back into the attack and then there was no stoppage for him. Ball was still seaming for him and as he came back he knocked over Taylor with an out swinging yorker. In his next over Southee sent Butler back with another outswinger. 3 balls later Southee disturbed Woakes' stumps with a peach of the delivery. Then he got Broad and Finn. And the misery continues. England's innings was wraped up on the total of 123. Southee picked up 7 wickets by giving only 33 runs. As a fast bowler you just love to see that kind of swing bowling.

It was again a cake walk for New Zealand batsmen. This time again Guptill and McCullum came out with the aim to boost the net run-rate. All began with the Anderson's wide half volley in the very first over which Guptill dispatched for four. Then there was an absolute carnage. New Zealand got 9 runs from their first over. McCullum hit 3 fours and a six in the second over bowled by Broad. McCullum took full advantage of small boundaries. He picked up 10 runs in third over, 20 runs of 4th over. McCullum reached to his half century in just 18 balls. He brought up his 50 in sixth over in which he hit four sixes and a four to Finn. In that over New Zealand picked up 29 runs. New Zealand was 96/0 after six overs.

The way McCullum was going DeVilliers' record of fatest 100 was in danger. He made mockery of English bowlers. He finally got out on full toss from Woakes. He made 77 of 25 balls. That innings was like as if I was watching highlights of the match. McCullum's innings was the decoration on the cake baked by Southee. By the time McCullum got out New Zealand reached to the total of 105 and only 18 more runs were required then. New Zealand won the match by eight wickets in 13th over.

Lot of records were broken and made in this match like fatest fifty in the world cup, fastest 100 runs by a team etc. This match had everything in it. A batsman made a mockery of a quality bowlers. A bowler of same side earned lot of respect of not only opposition but lot of other people as well with his swing bowling. At the end a better side with positive intent won the match.

Couple of big matches coming up. One of them is the match between two unpredictables team Pakistan and West Indies. While other one is between a favourite and a minnow Australia and Bangladesh. Hopefully it is going to be an exciting saturday.

#CWC15 day 8