As it happened - England vs New Zealand in Brisbane

Ten days into the Super 12s, England finally turned up at the T20 World Cup and delivered a clinical performance in a must-win game against New Zealand at the Gabba. Victory in their final group game against Sri Lanka on Saturday should be enough to send them through, barring a significant net run-rate swing.

Jos Buttler chose to bat first on a used pitch and produced his first significant innings of the tournament, making a superbly-paced 73 off 47 balls after two reprieves to set up England’s total of 179. He became England’s leading scorer in men’s T20Is in the process, on the night he won his 100th cap.

New Zealand, who would have qualified for the knockout stages with a win, looked well-placed in the chase. After 14.4 overs, they were 119 for 2 as Glenn Phillips, picking up from where he left off against Sri Lanka, dominated a 91-run partnership with a slow-scoring Kane Williamson.

But unlike in last year’s semi-final in Abu Dhabi, a game which loomed large over Tuesday night’s match in Brisbane, England managed to strike regularly towards the end: Ben Stokes removed Williamson, Mark Wood rushed James Neesham, and Sam Curran closed out the win with a superb spell at the death.

New Zealand’s net run rate is healthy enough that they will almost certainly qualify for the semi-finals by beating Ireland by any margin in their final group game, while Australia’s title defence is hanging by a thread on home soil: they either need to beat Afghanistan and hope England fail to beat Sri Lanka in Sydney, or thrash Afghanistan to ensure they overtake England on NRR.

Chris Woakes conceded 20 runs in the 19th over of last year's semi-final, taken down by Daryl Mitchell as England were knocked out of the World Cup:

This year, he has made amends at the death in a brilliant 17th over: Mitchell holes out to long-on, and England are closing in:

New Zealand have lost two quick wickets: Kane Williamson flashes Ben Stokes to short third, then Mark Wood rushes Jimmy Neesham on the pull who picks out Sam Curran, running in off the deep midwicket boundary. England still need to dislodge Phillips, but wickets at the other end are crucial against a relatively shallow batting line-up.

Daryl Mitchell, the hero of the 2021 semi-final in Abu Dhabi, walks out at No. 6...

Glenn Phillips is in the form of his life: he picks Rashid's googly and sends him over midwicket, then hangs back and mooses a drag-dwon for a second consecutive six in the same direction. The required rate is still in double figures, but England desperately need to get Phillips out - and soon. Only 25 balls for his 50.

Jeez, that's an unbelievable shot from Glenn Phillips! He's looking to make England pay after that reprieve from Moeen just now. Wood drops shot, hitting 94mph/151kph, but Phillips responds by pounding him 94 metres over midwicket - where the ball is taken brilliantly in the stands by a fan.

A scarcely believable drop from Moeen Ali at cover: Phillips' leading edge off Rashid skews up, hangs in the night sky and bursts straight through his hands! He must have lost it in the lights - the only plausible explanation.

Mark Wood is into the attack for the final over of the powerplay and is cranking it up immediately. His first over costs 12 but that requires a stroke of luck from Glenn Phillips, who inside-edges a 96mph/155kph ball past his leg stump and down to fine leg.

Conway looks to paddle Woakes away through fine leg but doesn't make much contact, and Buttler takes a superb sprawling catch down the leg side, flinging himself low to his right. England's captain is making quite an impact in his 100th T20I.

Moeen Ali takes the new ball for England, and there's spin immediately. Jos Buttler appeals confidently for a stumping but Devon Conway's foot is down just in time, but he looks uneasy against the turning ball, unsure whether or not he should play for the spin. England have 12 overs of spin in the tank if they want them, between Moeen, Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone.

That looks like a good total to me: there's clearly something in the pitch for the spinners to work with and New Zealand's seamers weren't at their best. If England bowl and field somewhere near their best, they should be able to defend that total.

Tune into T20 Time Out to see what Moody, Fleming and Uthappa make of that innings:

England's long batting line-up enables them to go hard throughout, but they are losing wickets in a hurry at the moment. Harry Brook swipes Southee over straight midwicket, and then Buttler is run out by a combination of Williamson and the bowler. Malan's slide down the order continues, with Sam Curran and Ben Stokes in for the final over.

Livingstone, promoted to No. 4, gets creative. He doesn't play the scoop often, but shuffles across and dinks Ferguson over short fine leg for four. But he falls straight after, looking to repeat the trick: Ferguson backed himself to nail the yorker, and did second time around. Harry Brook walks out at No. 5, ahead of Malan and Stokes.

It's only taken him 35 balls. He's not been at his most fluent throughout and has had a couple of lives, but this is a vital innings in a vital game.

14 runs off Lockie Ferguson's over as Jos Buttler frees his arms, but there's another costly drop. Daryl Mitchell is the culprit this time, shelling a simple chance on the boundaary as Buttler takes on the pull. That feels like a key moment in the game.

Clever bowling from Santner, who sees Hales coming and goes slower and wider to spin one past his outside edge. That brings Moeen Ali in at No. 3, his first T20I innings there since the last World Cup and only his second since August 2015.

His task will be to take Sodhi down, with Santner completing an exceptional four-over spell of 1 for 25 - though Williamson could throw the ball to Phillips or Neesham.

This is a used pitch and there's clearly some assistance for Santner and Sodhi, but England will be disappointed with how they've gone against spin so far. Their batting line-up, with three left-handers through the middle, is perfectly set up to take down left-arm spin and legspin, but New Zealand's spinners have rolled through five overs between them while conceding only two boundaries.

There are discussions in the dugout between Stokes, Moeen and Livingstone surrounding who should come in next. England have a platform; now is the time for them to launch.

Buttler looks to chip Santner over the off side, and Williamson dives running back from cover. He claims the catch and Buttler is walking off towards the boundary rope, but the replays show it clearly bounced after squirming through his hands and before he recovered it after an initial fumble. Williamson apologises to Buttler, who gets a life. How costly will that drop prove?

England were 25 for 0 after the first four overs but clearly keen to press on and make the most of the fielding restrictions: Alex Hales crashes Tim Southee down the ground for six, then swipes him through the off side twice in as many balls. He's flying now, and New Zealand are on the back foot.

A bright start for England, but the ball is still moving around in the third over. Buttler and Hales could hardly lay a bat on Boult for the first five balls of it, but Hales pounded him straight back over his head to keep them ticking at 21 for 0 after three. Will they cash in during the second half of the powerplay?

100 caps for Jos Buttler, the second player to reach the landmark for England in men's T20Is after Eoin Morgan.

Buttler could also overtake Morgan as England's leading run-scorer in the format in an hour or so - he needs 64 runs to take the lead.

Jos Buttler says that the used pitch is the major factor in his decision-making. England have had a lot of success batting first this year, with six wins and a loss while defending since the start of their home summer in July. Their totals batting first in that time: 234, 221, 215, 209, 208, 199 and 178.

England are unchanged, as are New Zealand - despite that temptation to bring in Bracewell for his offspin to England's left-handers. It'll be interesting to see how much Mitchell Santner is used - he bowled a solitary over in the 2021 semi-final, with England pairing left-handers in the middle order.

Eoin Morgan is working for Sky Sports and expects this pitch - which has been used three times before - will spin: "I think [Michael] Bracewell has a chance of coming in. England have three left-handers and Kane Williamson does not shy away from making big decisions. Watching the game here previous to this, the ball did turn, and we haven't seen any turn in this tournament so far."

Ben Stokes has struggled since returning to England's T20I set-up, with 41 runs off 42 balls since arriving in Australia, has been wrapped in cotton wool by the management since the Ireland game according to reports on the ground.

Paul Collingwood, England's assistant coach and his former Durham team-mate, has been defending him in the press, but does Stokes fit into England's best XI? That's the question asked by Tom Moody below.

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Moeen Ali, England's vice-captain, has been writing columns for the Daily Mail over the last six weeks. Here's a flavour of what was in today's newspaper:

"It's simple for us now really. We’ve got to win all of our games. Our mindset is simply telling ourselves that if we win four games, we win the World Cup. Two games this week and two games next week. That’s it.

"New Zealand are a solid side, as everyone’s seen so far. We’ve got a knack of meeting them in big games and that shows how they’re more or less always contenders.

"Any sign of weakness and they have players who will punish you. Early wickets will be key because that top order of Devon Conway, Finn Allen, Kane Williamson and Glenn Phillips can hurt you.

"And even if you get them, Daryl Mitchell and Jimmy Neesham are just as dangerous — as we saw in our World Cup semi-final loss in Abu Dhabi last year."

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