New Zealand face up to the beasts they unleashed

As lakes formed on the Cardiff outfield, it felt more like January than June. At one point a duck made itself at home on the edge of the covers.

The weather is threatening to have a decisive say in the group stages of the Champions Trophy. It is a case of crossing fingers and hoping there is enough cricket between the showers tomorrow. The tournament could also do with a match that remains a contest, ideally for close to 100 overs.

There have been some impressive individual performances so far - the classy centuries from Joe Root, Kane Williamson, Hashim Amla and Tamim Iqbal; the fielding display from South Africa and Imran Tahir's match-seizing spell - and some hard-fought periods of play, but ultimately the results have been one-sided.

England's chase against Bangladesh was a canter; Sri Lanka capitulated to South Africa; Pakistan were woeful even by their recent standards against India, while Australia's attack would have been too good for Bangladesh, but for a farcical denouement in the puddles.

There's no given that this match between against England and New Zealand will break the mould, but there is a decent chance if the weather allows. When they previously met on these shores two years ago, England emerged with an engrossing 3-2 victory, in which a then-record volume of runs was scored for a five-match series.

That, of course, came shortly after England's dismal World Cup campaign, a regular reference point when analysing the rise of a crop of players who have since taken the 50-over game by storm. At the time of that series against New Zealand in 2015, it was impossible to say whether England would be able to sustain the dynamism of their play. Many a false dawn has been seen in English one-day cricket down the years. Subsequent events have emphatically proved that his one really was worthy of a dawn chorus.

The fortunes of the two teams during that last World Cup could not have been further apart - most especially during their group-stage encounter in Wellington when England were skittled for 123 and New Zealand hurtled to the target with 226 balls to spare. There could be five England faces remaining from that day if Steven Finn - who was clattered for an eye-watering 49 off two overs, largely by Brendon McCullum - is recalled after replacing Chris Woakes.

"It was sort of men against boys," Eoin Morgan, who was also captain that day, recalled. "But I think it's completely different now, two years down the line. I think the dominant factor in New Zealand was that they had that confidence at the time and the confidence within the group, whereas we didn't have it."

Would things have turned out differently if New Zealand hadn't been England's first major opponents after that calamitous World Cup? With McCullum still at the helm, they were only going to approach the game one way - England had no option but to respond. It may not be insignificant, either, that McCullum and Morgan are very close friends.

"I think they've contributed to it as a whole," Morgan said. "I think the way New Zealand went about playing their cricket was probably closer to the way we go about it. We have very similar characteristics and values as a side and it's probably the easiest to relate to out of those four teams that made the latter stages [of the 2015 World Cup]."

Two years on from the beginning of the transformation, England can now be the first side to book their place in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy with victory in Cardiff. A New Zealand win, or a share of the points, keeps things very interesting indeed.

As the rain fell, New Zealand could be forgiven a hint of déjà vu. Four years ago, their Champions Trophy campaign was all but ended when England beat them in a rain-affected match on this ground. Given the water under the bridge since that game, it is something of a quirk that they will line up with the same top four on Tuesday: Martin Guptill, Luke Ronchi, Kane Williamson and Ross Taylor.

Another defeat this time would again leave them needing favours from their Antipodean neighbours (or from the heavens in that same contest). If that was the case, there may be a few pangs of regret among the New Zealanders that they were the ones to inspire England's transformation. Whatever the result, though, the tournament could do with these two teams going hammer and tongs again.