Williamson unlucky, I have the 'smallest' hands - Wood
George Dobell at Chester-le-Street
Mark Wood admitted he "got lucky" to dismiss Kane Williamson in freakish fashion in Durham.
Williamson was well set and averaging over 100 in the tournament when Ross Taylor punched a delivery from Wood down the ground only to see the bowler stick a hand out and, in attempting to stop the ball, gain only the slightest of deflections onto the stumps at the non-striker's end. Williamson, backing up in anticipation of a run, was out of his ground and out of the game.
And while Williamson generously suggested England's tight bowling might have played a part in forcing him to back-up so aggressively - "the English bowlers put us under pressure," he said, "I don't know whether the run-out came from that" - Wood accepted luck was a more pertinent factor. Especially bearing in mind his "small hands."
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"I got lucky," Wood said. "He backed-up because he was looking for the run. It was nothing to do with my bowling. And it's not as if I deliberately palmed it back on the stumps. I was trying to actually stop it and got a little bit fortunate. I am pleased that in such a big game I managed to be so lucky.
"He doesn't know how unlucky he is because I've got the smallest hands for a bloke you've ever seen. I managed to just get a fingertip to it. The umpire wasn't sure if I'd tipped it, and I was like 'I swear to God I did.' I knew it had flicked the end of my finger.
"He is 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."
Jos Buttler, meanwhile, reckoned that England's performance in their last couple of games - matches in which they have beaten India and New Zealand at a time they knew defeat could mean elimination from the tournament - should both give the side confidence and remind them to play the "brand of cricket" which works best for them.
"It's a really good sign for us," Buttler said. "We stood up and played our brand of cricket under that pressure. That breeds a lot of confidence for the group. It reminds us that our way is the best way and gives us a lot of chance of performing. That's what we have resorted to in the two must-win games and shows that we must continue that."
Both men admit their excitement at reaching the semi-final stage, though Buttler also accepted it had been a "minimum requirement" ahead of the tournament.
"We are very excited to be in a semi-final," he said. "But I think it was the minimum requirement; the first stage we had to get to. We have given ourselves a great chance and we're really excited for that challenge. We've obviously had two tough games to finish to qualify and we showed great character to come through with two very good performances."
"We've got some great momentum," Wood agreed. "We've had our backs up against the wall so to play with the values we have talked about in the past has showed a lot of courage from the team. Now we are going on to another huge game, but one we'll be pretty confident in."
