Mark Wood hopes luck stays on England’s side after his fortunate run out of Kane Williamson helped the hosts secure their World Cup semi-final spot.
England coasted past New Zealand at Chester-le-Street, winning by 119 runs after emphatically defending their first-innings mark of 305 for eight.
Jonny Bairstow rightly took the man-of-the-match award for his second century in four days, but Wood’s efforts with the ball helped ensure the hefty margin of victory.
He took three for 34, taking his tally at the competition to 16, but his biggest contribution was one he barely knew about.
When Ross Taylor punched a drive back down the ground Wood threw out an arm, getting a tiny touch before the ball clattered the stumps and left captain Williamson high and dry for 27.
“He doesn’t know how unlucky he is because I’ve got the smallest hands for a bloke you’ve ever seen,” said Wood with a grin.
Touch Wood! 👀 #ENGvNZ | #CWC19 pic.twitter.com/FfOw5bvWgk — Cricket World Cup (@cricketworldcup) July 3, 2019
“I managed to just get a fingertip to it. The umpire wasn’t sure if I’d tipped it, and I said ‘I swear to God I did’. I knew it had flicked the end of my finger.
“He was one of the best players I’ve ever bowled at so to get him out any way you can is pretty important. It saved me bowling at him any more so I was pretty pleased.
“In big games, in big moments, you need those moments. I’m just pleased that in such a big game I managed to be so lucky.”
“Is it luck or lack of it? It is one of those things,” said Williamson.
“The English bowlers put us under pressure and I don’t know whether that run-out came from that, but you move on.”
ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Rory Dollard, PA Cricket Correspondent');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'a0250fa5-58fa-4cea-9044-5b75c6c39543');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:uk,paservice:sport:world');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:cricket');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Mark Wood welcomes stroke of luck that helped England reach World Cup semi-final'});
