England v New Zealand: T20 World Cup semi-final – live!

Both teams take the knee. And the umpires too – Erasmus and Dharmasena.

It’s time for the anthems, a chance to see which players are way taller than their team-mates. Kyle Jamieson, who’s not even in the NZ team, is so toweringly tall, he could be a shot by Liam Livingstone.

“England may not be in tip-top shape with the loss of Roy, Stokes and more,” says Luciano Howard. Something tells me there’s a “but” coming. “But, importantly, in T20 it’s all about the hitting. And here England have the firepower – lots of it – just as you said. England mastered the chase in 50-over cricket. Here’s where they will master setting the target. Then it’s all about pressure, and whilst NZ are the definition of calm, England have proven their ability there, too.” Sounds like we’re heading for a tie.

The first email of the day comes, superbly, from a Kiwi in Sweden. “Speaking from an NZ perspective,” says Ben Bernards, “and fully appreciating that only a miserable collapse should entail the use of all 11 batsmen, any time Southee has two or more players lower down the order than himself makes me uncomfortable. Raining sixes on Test debut be damned, he’s a no. 11!” Ha. If that’s your biggest worry, aren’t you secretly being quite optimistic?

England 1 Jonny Bairstow, 2 Jos Buttler (wkt), 3 Dawid Malan, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Liam Livingstone, 6 Eoin Morgan (capt), 7 Sam Billings, 8 Chris Woakes, 9 Chris Jordan, 10 Adil Rashid, 11 Mark Wood.

So Bairstow opens, England bat deep, their fielding gets even better, but the bowling could be a touch light – and they have to deal with the dew. Morgan is honest enough to tell Nasser Hussain that he would have bowled first too.

New Zealand 1 Martin Guptill, 2 Daryl Mitchell, 3 Kane Williamson (capt), 4 Devon Conway (wkt), 5 Glenn Phillips, 6 Jimmy Neesham, 7 Mitchell Santner, 8 Adam Milne, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Ish Sodhi, 11 Trent Boult.

Simon Burnton is at the ground and keeping his eye on the England pre-match huddle. “Sam Billings getting the back-slaps,” he reports. “Looks like he’s got the nod to replace Jason Roy.” And that, in turn, probably means that Bairstow moves up to open with Buttler.

Afternoon everyone, and welcome to the most mouthwatering match so far in this World Cup. England v New Zealand, it has to be said, wasn’t always a contest to get the juices flowing. For decades it was tediously one-sided, then tight but taciturn. You would have got long odds on these two nations ever meeting in a World Cup final, let alone concocting the greatest cliffhanger in cricket history. And now here they are in Abu Dhabi, the 50-over World Cup holders taking on the world champions of Test cricket.

If there’s any justice, New Zealand will win by the widest of margins. But the gods of sport reserve the right to be fickle at all times, and on paper this looks too close to call. Kane Williamson has the stronger seam attack, led by Adam Milne, the understudy who has become a star. Eoin Morgan has the edge on spin, thanks to the reliable Adil Rashid and the resurgent Moeen Ali. England have more injuries, and may badly miss Jason Roy, but they also have the greater firepower. Even when one masterblaster drops out, there are still three left – Jos Buttler, Jonny Bairstow and Liam Livingstone. And then there’s Moeen, who’s more of a mastercaresser.

England have Morgan, an all-time great captain, even if he did borrow half his ideas from the nation he faces today. NZ have Williamson, a man so cool and calm that he can claim his team look back “fondly” on the 2019 World Cup final. Either side would make a worthy finalist this time, and NZ have more momentum, after getting their one bad day out of the way early on.

It should be a treat. Play starts at 2pm UK time – do join me around 1.35 for news of the toss and the teams.