New Zealand vs England: Rehan Ahmed and Will Jacks complete comeback

The pivotal over was the 18th from Glenn Phillips, which went for 22, Rehan’s six over long on being followed by Jacks taking 14 from the last three deliveries as New Zealand’s victory began to evaporate before their eyes.

The penultimate over from Mitchell Santner then cost 16 thanks to Rehan’s reverse-swept four and straight six, by which point England’s job was all but done. A flick to fine leg from Jacks sealed the victory by four wickets and ensured Jacks walked off — amazingly — to his fourth match award in 20 days for his unbeaten 32 off 18 and two wickets for 23. Rehan scored 19 off seven, having also claimed two wickets.

Chasing down a target of 160 was always going to be tricky in these conditions, especially against tenacious opponents needing a win to ensure their progress into the last four. England needed their top order to make the most of the early overs before the ball softened, then if they were ahead of the rate they could knock the ball around and keep the scoring moving without taking undue risks.

So much for the plan. Phil Salt fell in the first over for the second match in succession, driving loosely at Matt Henry, and worse was to follow when Jos Buttler’s nightmare run continued. This was a better piece of bowling, Lockie Ferguson extracting decent bounce on a tight line to take a thick outside edge to the keeper.

It left Buttler with 62 runs in seven innings in the tournament, but, more alarmingly still, with 15 in his past five, spanning 27 balls. If this is just a blip in form, it is a pretty alarming one. Buttler tossed his bat in the air as he walked off, a player lost for solutions.

Out marched Harry Brook at his new position of No3 and he picked up where he left off against Pakistan, making room to power through cover before fashioning an extraordinary flick over midwicket that crashed into the electronic scoreboard, literally knocking some of the lights out.

Jacob Bethell settled in along his captain and English spirits briefly lifted, but it was not to last. Brook holed out to long on — one of his favourite scoring areas which New Zealand had unsurprisingly sought to block off — and Bethell holed out to deep mid-wicket where Phillips reminded everyone of his status as one of the world’s best outfielders with a brilliant low catch diving forward.

Tom Banton and Sam Curran kept England in the hunt with a busy stand of 42 off 35 balls, but when Curran also gave a more regulation catch to Phillips in the deep, the target was an unlikely 60 off 33 balls. On a flat pitch, maybe. On this one, much trickier. Or at least, so everyone thought.

It was clear that spin was going to dominate. It had two nights earlier when New Zealand defended 168 to knock out Sri Lanka, and this game was being played on the same pitch. England favoured Rehan’s leg spin over Jamie Overton hard lengths. Even then, Jofra Archer and Curran were called on for only four overs; the spinners got through 16 overs, the most for England in a T20.

The toss, won by New Zealand, felt like a big one; teams batting first had won five of the six games on this ground so far. Tim Seifert and Finn Allen made excellent use of the powerplay, posting 54 in six overs despite Archer beginning with a maiden, and denying England a wicket in this phase for the first time in 14 T20s.

But with the field back, the nature of the cricket changed as Brook juggled five spinners for the rest of the innings. New Zealand’s next 14 overs yielded a modest 105 runs for seven wickets, and their rate actually slowed; they went at just more than a run per ball in the last seven.

Rashid broke the first-wicket stand with a teasingly tossed up ball which Seifert went at too eagerly, Buttler completing the stumping. Jacks then had Allen caught at deep mid-wicket.

Phillips was quickly into his stride but Rachin Ravindra less so, and he fell to Rehan’s first ball of the night — and his first at a World Cup — which was an ugly drag-down which Ravindra swung straight to the man at deep midwicket.

After that the squeeze applied by the slow men was relentless and Mark Chapman, Daryl Mitchell, who never got going, and Phillips, the top-scorer with 39, all perished trying to force the pace.

At a time when sides are normally looking to floor the accelerator there was no boundary for 26 balls, but New Zealand would have been mightily grateful for the 12 runs that came off the final over from Rehan, which Santner rounded off with a straight six, the first maximum since the seventh over. It proved too little too late.

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