India’s spinners crushed a woeful England side in the T20 World Cup semi-final as they secured a dominant 68-run victory at the Guyana National Stadium.
India will meet unbeaten side South Africa, who earlier thrashed Afghanistan, in the final in Barbados on Saturday (3pm), live on Sky Sports.
Rohit Sharma’s men posted 171-7 in a rain-interrupted innings after being asked to bat first, and then bowled England out for 103 with 20 balls to spare, with left-arm spinner Axar Patel (3-23) and wrist-spinner Kuldeep Yadav (3-19) doing the damage as the defending champions were unable to counter the attack.
England looked in trouble when they lost Jos Buttler (23) and Phil Salt (5) early on in the powerplay and were unable to recover during their innings, losing their final five wickets for only 35 runs against a rampant India side as they fell from 68-5 in the 11th over to 103 all out.
Earlier, Rohit Sharma (57) brought up his third half-century of the tournament and shared a 73-run partnership with Suryakumar Yadav (47) between the rain delays, to help their side post a strong total on a pitch with low bounce and high turn.
England’s Chris Jordan (2-27) took two wickets in two balls in the 18th over, removing Hardik Pandya (23) and Shivam Dube (0), while Adil Rashid (1-25), Reece Topley (1-25), Jofra Archer (1-33) and Sam Curran (1-25) all took one wicket each.
However, in the end India managed to get revenge for the World Cup semi-final in Adelaide two years ago where England were victorious and ended up being crowned double world champions. Buttler’s side have now lost both those titles after crashing out of the 50-over World Cup in India last year.
Rohit guides India to strong total
India came into this game with an advantage given there was no reserve day scheduled for the second semi-final and, by virtue of being at the top of the table, they would have qualified for the final in the event of a washout.
The teams took to the field after a delayed toss with Rohit and Suryakumar helping their side to 65-2 by the eighth over before rain interrupted play at 5.23pm, the teams resuming at 6.40pm.
Rohit brought up his fifty in style after sweeping Curran for a maximum over fine leg in the 13th over, but the India skipper played the wrong length and was outdone by a superb googly from spinner Adil Rashid in the following over.
Suryakumar top-edged Archer to long-on where he found the safe hands of Chris Jordan, leaving India 124-4.
Jordan was hit for consecutive sixes by Hardik in the 18th over only for the all-rounder to hole out next ball. The pace bowler removed Shivam Dube (0) for a golden duck but his hat-trick ball didn’t come to fruition this time with Axar guiding it to cover for a single.
Jordan picked up his third wicket in the penultimate ball of India’s innings after Axar swatted him straight to Salt at long-on.
India steamroll to victory
England were skittled by an impressive India attack who took wickets regularly to send the defending champions on their way home and march into the T20 World Cup final undefeated.
Buttler, who scored an unbeaten 82 off 38 balls in their game against the USA, was caught by Pant in the fourth over after he attempted to reverse-sweep Axar.
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Jos Buttler, Phil Salt and Jonny Bairstow were out in quick succession in England’s chase of 172 against India.
Salt (5) departed cheaply in the following over after being bowled by a slow off-cutter from Jasprit Bumrah (2-12) that struck his leg-stump.
Axar dismissed Jonny Bairstow (0) for a duck with a delivery that stayed low to leave England faltering on 35-3 by the end of the powerplay.
The defending champions added 11 more runs before left-arm spinner Axar struck again and had Moeen Ali (8) stumped as he skipped down the pitch looking to hit big but missed his shot.
Wrist-spinner Kuldeep took the next three wickets, trapping Curran (2) and Jordan (1) lbw and bowling Harry Brook (25), who posted England’s highest score of their innings, as they slipped to 72-7.
Liam Livingstone (11), who was England’s last hope, added 11 more to their total, but a mix up in the middle with Archer cost him his wicket when he was run out at the non-striker’s end by Kuldeep.
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England lose their eighth wicket to sum up their calamitous innings as miscommunication between Liam Livingstone and Jofra Archer results in a messy run out.
Rashid (2) was run out by some incredible fielding from Suryakumar, who managed a back-handed direct hit at the stumps.
Bumrah mopped up the tail when he had Archer trapped lbw with a low full toss. England reviewed the on-field decision that was initially given out but Hawk-Eye showed it was clipping leg stump.
Buttler: India outplayed us
England captain Jos Buttler:
“India certainly outplayed us. They fully deserved their win.
“We let them get 20-25 runs too many. It was a challenging surface that they played well on. I don’t think the toss was the difference between the teams. They out-bowled us and had an above-par score.”
‘Kohli saving his best for final’
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India captain Rohit Sharma is backing Virat Kohli to perform at his very best in the T20 World Cup final.
India’s captain Rohit Sharma:
“We worked very hard as a unit and to win this game like that was a great effort from everybody.
“I thought we adapted to the conditions really well… they were really challenging. And that has been the success story for us so far [in this tournament].”
On Virat Kohli, who scored just nine runs and has just 75 from seven innings in the tournament:
“Kohli is a quality player. Any player can go through a bad patch. We understand his class and his importance in these big games.
“Form is never a problem when you’ve played cricket for 15 years. He’s looking good, the intent is there and he’s probably saving it for the final.”
Watch the T20 World Cup final in Barbados from 3pm on Saturday (3.30pm first ball), live on Sky Sports Cricket.