Twitter Reactions: Chris Woakes and Liam Plunkett restrict New Zealand to 241 at Lord’s

New Zealand have posted a not so competitive total (may be) of 241 runs after opting to bat first in the 2019 World Cup final against England at Lord’s. The hosts were exceptional in the middle overs to keep a lid on the run-scoring while the Kiwis also looked content with the middling score just like they did against India. Their middle order stalwarts Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor didn’t score big which cost them but Tom Latham made sure that they posted a decent total on the board.

Martin Guptill and Henry Nicholls finally resisted the new ball to some extent on a greenish pitch. The latter was given out early in the innings but a smart review helped the duo add 29 runs for the opening wicket, a better effort compared to the earlier match. Guptill was dismissed in a similar fashion yet again as Chris Wokes pinned him in front of the stumps. But he wasted a review unnecessarily which cost the Kiwis later in the innings.

Kane Williamson and Nicholls then sedately played to build a decent second-wicket stand. Nicholls played some brilliant strokes which the New Zealand skipper calm who wasn’t able to rotate the strike at the start of his innings. However, once the first powerplay ended which yielded 33 runs for the loss of the only wicket, the BlackCaps started to churn out some quick runs.

Liam Plunkett and Adil Rashid didn’t start off well and both the set batsman took the toll to add 58 runs in the next set of 10 overs. At 91/1 after 20 overs, England needed a couple of wickets and there were some worried faces in their camp.

Plunkett redeems himself

However, Plunkett came to bowl his second spell and with his cross seam delivery, got the better of Kane Williamson who was starting to look dangerous. Nicholls got to his fifty after some time but was bowled off the same bowler. Ross Taylor took his time but was at the receiving end of a bad decision from Marais Erasmus. Mark Wood taled one significantly back in for the batsman to hit Taylor high on the front pad and the umpire raised his finger.

With no reviews up his sleeve, the batsman had to walk back and the hawk-eye showed the ball to be missing the stumps. Tom Latham then got into his work and concentrated on taking the game deep much like New Zealand did in the semi-final.

James Neesham and Colin de Grandhomme both got out after scoring 19 and 16 runs respectively. New Zealand could never up the ante with constant fall of wickets in the last 10 overs. They remained content with taking the singles and seemed to have 240 as the target in their mind. Latham batted well according to the plan but at the same time, England bowled some immaculate lines to not let the batsmen off the hook.

Jofra Archer and Chris Woakes were superb in the last few overs as New Zealand finished on 241 runs for the loss of eight wickets in 50 overs. While the latter ended with the figures of 3/37, Plunkett was superb with his variations during his spell of 3/42.

Here’s how Twitter reacted: