Nervy Alastair Cook happy England edged into Champions Trophy last four

London: England captain Alastair Cook admitted he suffered a few jitters as New Zealand came close to knocking his team out of the ICC Champions Trophy in Cardiff late on Sunday night.

The hosts needed a win to secure a semi-final place and, after a lengthy rain delay, just about got home by 10 runs from a reduced match of 24 overs per side. England were put in to bat and captain Cook led from the front with an aggressive 64 from 47 balls to see his team to a total of 169, despite a late collapse that saw seven wickets fall for just 28 runs.

James Anderson then helped reduce the Kiwis to 62 for five, before Kane Williamson and debutant Corey Anderson put on 78 to take the match to a nail-biting finale.

And afterwards man-of-the-match Cook said: “It’s such a small boundary over there so it was a nerve-racking time.

“It’s always tricky batting first in a 24-over game. You never know quite what a good score is. It’s not Twenty20, there are seven overs of powerplays, which is different, and the wicket had been under covers for a while. We didn’t quite know what a good score was, but we got a competitive total in the end and I thought we bowled very well.

“I think we lost seven wickets for 36 or something right there at the end. We were looking at 180 to 190, so maybe we set our sights too high. If we had set our sights a bit lower, we might have gotten even more. So that was, I thought, the hardest part.”

Cook reserved special praise for his bowlers, particularly new ball pair Anderson (3-32) and Stuart Broad (1-25), who stopped New Zealand from getting off to a flying start.

“It is important to strike early when you’re defending 170. I thought those first four overs were fantastic bowling by Jimmy and Broady, and it nipped around a little bit. We got those couple of wickets and just managed to keep taking wickets when we needed to. Obviously, it was a very good partnership from Williamson and Anderson there, but still we felt that we were in control,” he said.

Of his team’s performances in the group stage, Cook said: “In these three games, I thought we’ve played pretty well. Clearly there was an outstanding century by Kumar Sangakkara to beat us the other day, but today [Sunday] we’ve adapted well to different conditions. So it was a good effort.

“Any of these eight sides in the Champions Trophy are dangerous to play against. You have to be at the top of your game to win.”

Cook, renowned as a hugely patient batsman in Test cricket, was also pleased to play a key role with the bat in the shortened form. “I thought that would keep you entertained,” he told media. “I don’t play too much Twenty20 cricket but I managed to get a few runs, so that was nice.”