T20 World Cup 2022, Match 33: England vs New Zealand - Talking points and Who Said What?

England recorded an important win against the Kiwis to keep their hopes alive in the T20 World Cup 2022. After opting to bat first, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales put on an 81-run partnership for the first wicket and it set the platform for a big total. Hales perished after a 40-ball 52 and it was the Buttler show which tore apart the New Zealand bowling attack. His 73 off 47 balls alongside few cameos down the order helped England reach 179 for 6 in their 20 overs.  

The total proved to be too good for the Kiwis on the day as they never looked like chasing it down. Kane Williamson’s run-a-ball 40 did not help the Blackcaps while Glenn Phillips’ 62 off 36 balls did provide a scare for England side. However, a combined excellent bowling spells ensured that England picked up a 20-run victory and have improved their net run-rate which is crucial. Let us look at the talking points from the game.

Jos Buttler takes over Eoin Morgan to become leading run scorer for England in T20Is 

Jos Buttler became the top run-scorer in T20Is for England after surpassing his former captain Eoin Morgan during his brilliant knock against New Zealand. Morgan scored 2458 runs in 107 innings while Buttler went past the record in just 92 innings. It is a massive accomplishment considering that Buttler is just 32 years and has still a lot of international years to come.  

Sam Curran continues his impeccable form with the ball 

Sam Curran has proved to be a great find for England and the left-arm seamer is stacking up the wicket's column with consistent breakthroughs. He has taken the responsibility of bowling the tough overs and has done the job so far with ease in the T20 World Cup 2022. He finished with 2 for 26 in a must-win encounter and got the big wicket of Glenn Phillips.  

Losing skipper, Kane Williamsan said:

Credit to the way England played, they put us under pressure. They played beautifully, hats-off to England, they were clinical. It was a slightly above par total. We tried to take it little deep, but credit to the way they bowled. It was quite tricky. You don't want to be doing that, and he'll make you pay. He played a beautiful knock in a big game for them. I thought I had squeezed it in my chest, it was a bit embarrassing in the end. He has been batting beautifully, he got a hundred in the last game, and changed the momentum in our favour somewhat today. You will be put under pressure in such tournaments, but we need to take the positives and move on to the next game.

Winning skipper and Player of the match, Jos Buttler said:

I said at the toss that we didn't think too much about the past poor performance, we have great players in the playing XI and in the squad, we had the confidence that showed up today. It's a ruthless tournament, last year South Africa went out despite having 4 wins out of 5 games. This is a World Cup, there will be pressure and the best teams do thrive under it. We bat deep, I thought the wicket was a little bit tricky, especially against spin and I thought Alex Hales played a fine hand, it's all about partnerships, one day he gets going, some other day it'll be my turn. It's nice at the end of a career when you look back at things on an individual level (on going past Eoin Morgan as the highest scorer for England in T20Is). The game was shaped in different ways, facing spin was tough, we wanted to be flexible with both bat and ball - the way Moeen bowled that fantastic first over, he put New Zealand under a lot of pressure. Hales played brilliantly, we know what he is capable. You need to be patient in T20 cricket, you need to keep backing guys. It's important to keep pushing them and keep encouraging them. We were aiming for 160-165, but we managed to push beyond that. We have had success batting first. The games against Australia, we won batting first. You always need to take wickets in the second half. Batting first was the right option for us today. The pitch was a bit damp. He (Curran) has been bowling well, hitting the wickets hard. First and foremost we need to win against Sri Lanka.