T20 World Cup: Dominant England knock out India, to face Pakistan in final

UNB, Dhaka :

England showed their white-ball prowess once again and knocked India out of the T20 World Cup by beating them by a massive margin of 10 wickets in the second semifinal on Thursday in Adelaide.

They will now take on Pakistan in the final, who beat New Zealand in the first semifinal on Wednesday and marched to the final.

India batted first and posted 168 riding on the fifties from Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya. In reply, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler played down every threat posed by Indian bowlers and sealed the match without losing any wickets. It was a textbook example of an authoritative performance from England.

“Pretty disappointed how it turned up today,” Indian Captain Rohit Sharmay said after the match. “We batted well at the backend to get that score. We were not upto the mark with the ball, we couldn’t turn up today. It’s all about handling the pressure in knockout games.”

It seemed to be a testing total for England at the halfway of the match, but Hales and Buttler made it look like cakewalk. Their partnership of 170 in the opening stand is now the best (in the first wicket stand) in England’s history.

It is now the third highest-ever chase in the history of T20Is without losing a wicket. And at the same time, it is now the second-best partnership of England (in any wicket) in the format and the second-highest T20 stand against India, and the best-ever opening stand in T20 World Cups.

On their way to this partnership, Hales and Buttler surpassed the 143 that was made by Alex Hales and Michael Lumb in 2013 against New Zealand. With this stand, Alex has now been involved in all five of the top opening stands of England.

“It will be right up there for sure (referring to his inning),” Hales said after the match. “Huge occasion, India in a semifinal of a World Cup, really happy with the way I played and it is as special as it gets.”

With 168 runs to defend, India were never in a position to offer some challenge to England — Hales and Buttler never gave them even a single chance to dominate. Indian fielders were also sloppy in the middle in this match.

England were in top gear throughout the tournament, but suddenly they went supersonic in the semi against India. And that too at a venue where they suffered one of their biggest defeats in history — to Bangladesh in the 1015 World Cup. That defeat knocked them out of that World Cup.

Hales ended up scoring 86 off 47 while Buttler made 80 off 49 balls.

For India, three bowlers conceded at least 12.5 runs per over while one gave way more than 11 runs per over, and two spent more than 7.5 runs per over.

Before the imperious batting efforts from Hales and Buttler, England won the toss and sent India to bat first who posted 168 despite some slow time in the middle in the first 10 overs.

India lost Lokesh Rahul early. But Virat Kohli took control of their batting, though, Rohit Sharma was unexpectedly slow at the other end of the wicket. Virat posted 50 off 40 balls whereas Rohit’s contribution was 27 off 28 balls.

At the end of the first ten overs, India were at 62 for two, but in the next 10 overs, England leaked so many runs. Most of those runs were scored by an outstanding Hardik Pandya who posted 63 off 33 balls with four fours and six sixes.

Adil Rashid bowled well for them conceding only 20 in four overs. Chris Jordan picked up three wickets but conceded more than 40 runs, Sam Curran also gave way more than 40 runs and failed to bag any wickets.

“We always want to start fast and aggressively,” Jos Buttler, the English captain said after the match. “Rashid was batting at 11, that’s incredible to know that we have such depth. Hales used the dimensions well and he has shown his form. He was brilliant today. It’s important to enjoy this, it was a brilliant performance from us.”