T20 Semi - The injuries were the key in the end.

Losing Bairstow to come in in the middle stopped up ramping up the rate at the end, and getting to 180.
That's without any difference Roy opening would have made.

Wood did fine with the ball, but with Jordan and Woakes to a lesser extent struggling he was never quite the threat or control that Mills has been.

All in all England did "fine" in that game, and its a performance that probably would have won each of their group games, but in a Semi "fine" wasn't quite enough.

In Hindsight Mo may have been the better option to open (and get an over in in the middle of the NZ innings) but promoting Bairstow to a role he'd done before made sense.

Posted By: megson, Nov 11, 09:16:17