England v New Zealand: Cricket World Cup 2019 – live!

2nd over: England 15-0 (Roy 11, Bairstow 0) This, as Athers says on Sky, is a key phase of the game. England struggle against left-armers and Trent Boult is a world-class swing bowler. His first ball curves back into the pads of Roy, who survives a biggish LBW appeal. Although it was missing leg stump, that’s a really encouraging start for Boult. With the ball swinging, Roy starts respectfully against Boult, but he is alert enough to put a poor delivery through midwicket for four. He has faced every ball so far.

1st over: England 9-0 (Roy 5, Bairstow 0) Oh my! Santner’s first delivery is a beautiful arm ball that curves into Roy, beats his attempted cut and just misses the leg stump. It races away for four byes, but that could easily have been a first-baller for Roy. He gets off the mark later in the over by slapping a low full toss through the covers. Doom department: as Mike Atherton says on Sky, if the ball is swinging for the spinner, it will surely do so for Trent Boult.

“Very old school choice of Cole Porter lyrics – nice,” says Brian Withington. “First saw George Melly perform it at a British Gas Dinner Dance (!) circa 1980 in an enormous London Hotel ballroom, which he described in his inimitable style as an ‘intimate little boîte’ (to the amusement of those of us with O-level French).”

A British Gas Dinner Dance!

It’s time. The left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner will bowl the first over.

You know it’s a big game when … you have umpteen unread emails before a ball has been bowled. (It’s not as bad as the 2011 semi-final between India and Pakistan, when I had something like 94 unread emails before the toss.) Please keep them coming, even if I’ll struggle to read them all until tonight.

“Are they playing on the same pitch as Sri Lanka v West Indies, who both scored well on Monday?” asks Scott Rutherford.

No, it’s a new pitch and looks full of runs. The swing of Southee and especially Boult is probably England’s main concern.

“Why am I doing this?” says Sam Collier. “I was an absolute wreck on Sunday. I remained that way even while there was only a mathematical chance of India winning. And after England won, as realised I was going to have to go through it all again. Possibly three times. I just need you to tell me it’s going to be okay. Okay?”

Thankfully I’ve been an oasis of calm throughout this World Cup, and the crippling nausea I experienced all day Sunday was purely down to an excess of flat whites.

“Is there are way – other than trawling through the matches, one by one – to find out the percentage of toss wins that England has achieved during this tournament?” asks Sarah Bacon. “Feels excessive.”

They’ve won six out of nine.

Dave Voss is confident. “The Fear,” he says. “I’ve got it. I feel sick and trembling and it’s going to be like this all day isn’t it? Is it cowardly to start drinking at 10am?”

“We’ve finally made it to a match in England again,” writes Eva Maaten. “The Riverside is quite a change from the Wanderers in Joburg, lovely stadium. Witnessed some good-humoured banter between England and NZ fans on the bus to the stadium – it should be an exciting game on the most perfect of all English cricket days, sunny with picture book clouds.”

England are unchanged. New Zealand bring in Matt Henry and Tim Southee for Ish Sodhi and the injured Lockie Ferguson.

England Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan (c), Stokes, Buttler (wk), Woakes, Plunkett, Rashid, Archer, Wood.

New Zealand Guptill, Nicholls, Williamson (c), Taylor, Latham (wk), Neesham, de Grandhomme, Santner, Southee, Henry, Boult.

Kane Williamson says he would also have batted.

“On a dark and stormy™ Wellington night, I’m hunkered down and ready for this to get started,” writes my old colleague Paul Cockburn. “I was in the Cake Tin for the monstering NZ gave England in 2015… but down here I think people are nervous England will end the 13k-day streak. The Black Caps have rather lost their way as this compy has unwound, haven’t they?”

A little, mainly because they have too many players out of form. But they are – and I forgot to say this in the preamble – a dangerous team to underestimate.

An email!

“Could you put the standings table up pls?” asks Rob Connelly. “I can’t find the link on the Guardian site.”

The things I do for you people.

The New Zealand permutations

• They are through unless they are slaughtered today and Pakistan trounce Bangladesh on Friday. I can’t give you the exact figures because I got a B in GCSE maths, but it is incredibly unlikely.

Some early team news

The ferocious Lockie Ferguson is out with a tight hamstring, which is good news for Eoin Morgan’s hook stroke. Matt Henry or Tim Southee will replace him in the New Zealand side.

Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. But let’s not do it. Please, let’s not underestimate New Zealand. Since England’s stirring win over India on Sunday, there has been an unspoken, possibly unconscious assumption that they have nine toes in the semi-final. It’s dangerous, disrespectful and just plain wrong. England are below New Zealand in the table and have not beaten them at a World Cup for 13,173 days.

Thankfully, any complacency is unlikely to have spread to the England dressing-room. Eoin Morgan is an unashamed Kiwiphile, and England’s journey (sic) to this point started when they were giving the mother of all shellackings at Wellington in the last World Cup.

Under Morgan, England are unlikely to take their eyes off the process. Not today; not when so much is at stake. If they get it right, the prize is a first World Cup semi-final in 1992. If they fail, the post-mortem could take some time. Things are about to get nausea-inducingly real.

The match starts at 10.30am.