Mark Wood looked back on his second-best day in cricket after helping England to their first World Cup semi-final for a quarter of a century with victory at Chester-le-Street.

And the fast bowler from Ashington said his biggest contribution came in spite of having tiny hands!

Wood led England's wicket-taking with 3-34 as New Zealand were beaten by 119 runs at the Riverside.

But his main contribution was to run out the Kiwis' world-class batsman Kane Williamson, when he touched a Ross Taylor drive onto the stumps in his follow-through.

“I’ve got the smallest hands for a bloke that I’ve ever seen, but I managed to get a fingertip on it, so he doesn’t know how unlucky he is,” smiled the Durham player. “I don’t bite my fingernails luckily.

“The umpires weren’t sure if I’d tipped it, but I said, ‘I swear to God, I got a fingertip on it’.

“He’s 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 it saved my bowling figures I guess.”

Wood's captain Eoin Morgan described it as “a hell of a lot of luck” and the bowler admitted it is not something he practices.

Although England did not fully build on Jonny Bairstow's 106 after winning the toss and batting first, their 305-8 put New Zealand's 186 all out in the shade.

“It was probably the best day I’ve had apart from my (international) debut, which was also here,” said the Ashes-winner.

Wood was sweating on making the squad when Joffra Archer qualified to play for England in the build-up to the tournament but played in all but one of their nine group games, and has taken 16 wickets.

“I might get a nose-bleed, I’ve played that many games in a row!” he joked.

“I’m pretty happy with the form, and the way my body is going. I just need to keep it going now.

“Although previously I would have been rested, actually going from game to game, I’ve still felt pretty good. There wasn’t a need to change.”

Defeats to Sri Lanka and Australia in their sixth and seventh group games put England's semi-final hopes in doubt but now they play India or Australia at Edgbaston a week on Thursday.

“We’ve got some great momentum,” said Wood.

“It was a must-win game, and we did what we had to do.

“Maybe at the end of the World Cup, if everything goes to plan, we'll look back on the Sri Lanka and Australia games and say we built our character and got through that test.”