Cricket: Jason Roy Rampage Crushes New Zealand In Semi-Final

 

Jason Roy crashed 11 fours and two sixes in a phenomenally powerful innings to dominate a first-wicket stand of 82 in 8.2 overs with Alex Hales (20), before Jos Buttler crunched successive straight sixes off spinner Ish Sodhi, then another off Mitchell Santner to propel England past their victory target of 154 with 17 balls to spare. England will face either West Indies or hosts India in Sunday's final at Eden Gardens - their first final appearance since the title-winning campaign of 2010.

New Zealand flew out of the blocks as Martin Guptill pocketed two fours off David Willey's opening over only for the left-armer to hit back in his next, finding the edge of the opener's bat on the drive. New Zealand didn't hit a six until the eighth over, when Williamson went inside-out to strike Stokes over the off-side; Colin Munro (46) followed suit in the following over, reverse sweeping Rashid for a midwicket maximum - adding seven fours for good measure in a powerful 32-ball knock. At 92-1 just past the midway point, New Zealand seemed set for a colossal score but the innings began to unravel when Williamson skied Moeen Ali's third ball, the spinner running back to take a good catch. In total New Zealand added just 20 runs in the final four overs of the innings, Mitchell Santer holing out before Stokes fielded off his own bowling to run out Mitchell McClenaghan off the final ball.

England nearly eclipsed that particular tally in the first over of their chase as Jason Roy plundered four boundaries off Anderson, throwing his hands at any width. A crunching cut off Adam Milne helped swell the total to 23-0 off two and Alex Hales joined battle by pumping McClenaghan over long on for the first six of the innings. The introduction of spin brought little respite for New Zealand Roy powering Santner down the ground for four after the 50-run stand had come up off 26 balls, before tickling his eighth four of a pulsating innings to fine leg.

Roy's rampage, though, meant the required run-rate was barely six-an-over as Buttler and Joe Root came together - both batsmen happy to deploy the reverse sweep to manoeuvre the field around and make England's progress a formality with Buttler in merciless mood.