T20 World Cup 2022: Cricket fraternity reacts as Jos Buttler keeps England's semifinal hopes alive; defeat NZ by 20 runs

Jos Buttler was named the Player of the Match for his 73 and brilliant keeping.

  England remained alive in the race to the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-finals after they defeated New Zealand in a crunch Group 1 Super 12s match played at Brisbane on November 1, 2022. New Zealand, on the other hand, has one more match in hand to win and qualify for finals.

Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bat first. He led from the front scoring 73 in 47 balls with 2 sixes and 7 fours, while Alex Hales made 52 runs and added 81 for the first wicket. But then England struggled to build any partnerships and only Liam Livingstone reached double-figures (20) as they finished 179/6 in 20 overs.

Lockie Ferguson picked two wickets, while Tim Southee, Mitchell Santner, and Ish Sodhi were also amongst the wickets.

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In reply, Glenn Phillips with 62 (4 fours and 3 sixes) and Kane Williamson with 40 in 40 balls were the main scorers, but they were kept behind the required run rate by Williamson’s knock and the brilliant bowling performance by England.

Chris Woakes (2/33) and Sam Curran (2/26) were the picks of England bowlers as New Zealand only managed 159/6 and lost by 20 runs. Jos Buttler was named the Player of the Match.

With this win, both New Zealand (NRR of 2.333) and England (NRR of 0.547) have 5 points from 4 matches. Also joining them in third place is Australia (NRR of -0.304) with 5 points.

The cricket fraternity lauded England for their wonderful victory and praised them on Twitter.

Here are the tweets: