Plunkett delivers as England beat New Zealand

Mark Wood and Jake Ball made the most important breakthroughs, and Liam Plunkett – who finished with four for 55 – and Adil Rashid cashed in too as England defended a total of 310 all out.

Wood returned at the 30-over stage of New Zealand’s run chase in Cardiff to take the critical wicket of Kane Williamson for 87.

Ball, who had already bowled opener Luke Ronchi for a golden duck, then saw off the visiting captain’s third-wicket partner Ross Taylor to begin the Kiwis’ terminal slide from 158-2 to 223 all out – an outcome which ensures England will be back at the same venue for their semi-final next Wednesday. Half-centuries from Joe Root (64), Jos Buttler (61 not out) and Alex Hales (56) proved enough – although Morgan admitted he was far from sure they would after England were bowled out in 49.3 overs.

Morgan agrees their tournament is going very well so far, but added: “If you had asked me that at the halfway stage, I probably would have said it wasn’t.

“I thought we were probably 10 or 15 below par – given that 320 is probably a par score regardless of the game we’re playing in these days.”

It therefore needed Wood and Co to step up, and Morgan said: “Guys like him are so valuable to the team – and you can’t leave any of our bowlers out.

“I thought they did an outstanding job. They were truly the highlight of the day.

“Our batting performance was probably par or below par – so pretty average.

“I thought the bowlers today as a collective unit were brilliant, really.”

England will finish group winners whatever the outcome of their final match against Australia at Edgbaston on Saturday – when a win over their Ashes rivals, for the second time in successive editions of this tournament, is very likely to eliminate their oldest adversaries.

Morgan confirmed England will not be letting up at the weekend.

“I think if we’re truly going to be contenders for this tournament, we need to beat the best teams – and Australia are one of the best teams,” he said

“They always are, going into a white-ball tournament. They seem to produce limited-overs cricketers at will.

“So to go into a game like that with no other attitude than winning is very important to us.”

To that end, he will be instructing his batsmen to stay true to the attacking approach which has brought them a 300-plus total in half of their 46 matches since the last World Cup.

They did not quite click on this occasion, but still topped that benchmark.

“I thought we looked like we were getting about 340 at stages but fell away towards the end – which is disappointing,” said Morgan.

“But the fact we’re still trying to win games with the bat, regardless of the situation that we’re in, I think is testament to the team.

“We’re staying true to what we believe in and what we’ve achieved over the last couple of years.”

Williamson fell to a ball from Wood that leapt at him from short of a length to take his glove for caught-behind.

He left with a long look behind at the pitch, but afterwards admitted it was largely a case of credit to the opposition.

“England bowled very, very well,” he said.

“A lot of credit goes to the way they bowled on that surface to extract what they did out of it.”

Of the delivery which got him out, he added: “It bounced a bit more than I expected and hit my glove.

“It’s a bit frustrating, because we were getting a little bit of momentum with the bat.

“But I guess those things happen, and you move on.”

He nonetheless gave special mention to Wood. “He’s a very good bowler, unique in the fact that he bowls at such good pace off maybe a five to 10-metre run-up – which you don’t see too much around the world.

“He’s performed very, very well for England over a period of time - especially coming back after injury ... so certainly he is a strength of their bowling attack,” added Williamson.

There was a further sting in the tail for Williamson when the International Cricket Council fined him 40 per cent and his team 20 pr cent of their match fees for a slow over rate in England’s innings.