“We’ve finally made it to a match in England again,” writes Eva Maaten. “The Riverside is quite a change from the Wanderers in Joburg, lovely stadium. Witnessed some good-humoured banter between England and NZ fans on the bus to the stadium – it should be an exciting game on the most perfect of all English cricket days, sunny with picture book clouds.”
The teams
England are unchanged. New Zealand bring in Matt Henry and Tim Southee for Ish Sodhi and the injured Lockie Ferguson.
England Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (c), Stokes, Buttler (wk), Woakes, Plunkett, Rashid, Archer, Wood.
New Zealand Guptill, Nicholls, Williamson (c), Taylor, Latham (wk), Neesham, de Grandhomme, Santner, Southee, Henry, Boult.
England have won the toss and will bat first
Kane Williamson says he would also have batted.
Morgan wins the toss, England will bat first. Photograph: Stu Forster/IDI via Getty Images
Updated
“On a dark and stormy™ Wellington night, I’m hunkered down and ready for this to get started,” writes my old colleague Paul Cockburn. “I was in the Cake Tin for the monstering NZ gave England in 2015… but down here I think people are nervous England will end the 13k-day streak. The Black Caps have rather lost their way as this compy has unwound, haven’t they?”
A little, mainly because they have too many players out of form. But they are – and I forgot to say this in the preamble – a dangerous team to underestimate.
An email!
“Could you put the standings table up pls?” asks Rob Connelly. “I can’t find the link on the Guardian site.”
The things I do for you people.
The New Zealand permutations
- They are through unless they are slaughtered today and Pakistan trounce Bangladesh on Friday. I can’t give you the exact figures because I got a B in GCSE maths, but it is incredibly unlikely.
Some early team news
The ferocious Lockie Ferguson is out with a tight hamstring, which is good news for Eoin Morgan’s hook stroke. Matt Henry or Tim Southee will replace him in the New Zealand side.
Preamble
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. But let’s not do it. Please, let’s not underestimate New Zealand. Since England’s stirring win over India on Sunday, there has been an unspoken, possibly unconscious assumption that they have nine toes in the semi-final. It’s dangerous, disrespectful and just plain wrong. England are below New Zealand in the table and have not beaten them at a World Cup for 13,173 days.
Thankfully, any complacency is unlikely to have spread to the England dressing-room. Eoin Morgan is an unashamed Kiwiphile, and England’s journey (sic) to this point started when they were giving the mother of all shellackings at Wellington in the last World Cup.
Under Morgan, England are unlikely to take their eyes off the process. Not today; not when so much is at stake. If they get it right, the prize is a first World Cup semi-final in 1992. If they fail, the post-mortem could take some time. Things are about to get nausea-inducingly real.
The match starts at 10.30am.
Updated