Chasing a competitive 169 for victory, openers Alex Hales and Jos Buttler registered the highest partnership in the history of the tournament to power England into the final.
While defending 168 was never going to be easy for India against the explosive England batting order, Hales and Buttler never gave Rohit Sharma and co. even a sniff while chasing, ending the match with 24 balls to spare.
With the clinical win, England booked their tickets for Melbourne and will now face Pakistan in the final on Sunday.
India’s bowlers had a lackluster outing on the big day, failing to take a single England wicket and the batters too were a disappointment in the high-pressure game, failing to put enough runs on the board in the first place.
With Team India crashing out of the tournament, here’s a look at the key moments where Men in Blue went wrong in the semi-final against England:
1) Early Rahul jolt – England skipper Jos Buttler won a crucial toss and invited India to bat first. Throughout the tournament, India had issues with their opening pair not firing together. And once again it was a similar case today with KL Rahul getting dismissed in the second over itself, putting early pressure on the team. Scoring back-to-back fifties in the last two games, India expected Rahul to fire but that didn’t turn out to be the case with Chris Woakes forcing to edge one behind the stumps for just 5. With the fall of a wicket right at the start, India were in early trouble and needed a partnership to steady their innings in the big match.
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2) The unyielding Powerplay – With the loss of an early wicket, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma tried to steady the India innings but in that process failed to utilise the Powerplay restrictions. In the first 6 overs, India could only manage 38 runs with England bowlers ensuring that both the batters were not able to manage easy boundaries. The likes of pacers Chris Woakes, Sam Curran and spinner Adil Rashid kept India on the leash in the Powerplay overs.
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3) Surya flop show – India skipper Rohit Sharma had a torrid tournament and he once again failed to capitalise on the start he got, getting out on unimpressive 28-ball 27. That brought Suryakumar Yadav into the middle and India hopes were high from the in-form player of the tournament. While everyone was hoping that Surya would fire in the middle overs and get India innings on back track after a sluggish start, leggie Adil Rashid got the major breakthrough in the 12th over, removing Surya for 14 and putting India on the backfoot.
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4) The Virat-Hardik stand that gave India hope – The highest run-getter of this edition of the tournament, Virat Kohli and swashbuckling Hardik Pandya added 61-run for the fourth wicket but were always kept in check by the England bowlers throughout the 12-17th overs phase. Their partnership of 61 took 40 balls and India, lost for momentum, found themselves at 121 for 3 after the end of the 17th over. With Kohli reaching his fifty in the 18th over, it seemed that the duo would throw kitchen sink at the bowlers but Chris Jordan got rid of Kohli just at the right time to once again put the brakes on India’s acceleration. In-form Kohli failed to fire on the big day and was dismissed for 50 that came off 40 balls.
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5) Hardik blitz not enough – When Virat Kohli got out in the 18th over, it looked like England would easily manage to restrict India under 150. But then Hardik Pandya went all guns blazing in the final 2 overs. He along with Rishabh Pant collected 32 runs in the final 12 balls, taking India to a competitive 168 for 6 at the end of 20 overs. While Hardik smashed an unbeaten 33-ball 63, the score on the board did not look enough for the mighty England batting line-up.
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6) Buttler-Hales going berserk – While India failed to utilise the Powerplay restrictions, England did exactly the opposite in their chase of 169, going out in all attack mode. With Jos Buttler smacking 3 boundaries in the first over from Bhuvneshwar Kumar, England made their intent pretty clear right from the word go. Going all guns blazing against the pacers, the Buttler-Hales thrashing forced Rohit Sharma to bring a spinner inside the powerplay overs just to stop the leakage of boundaries. With the England openers going full throttle in the powerplay overs, England found themselves in a terrific position of 63 for no loss after the first six overs.
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7) Bowlers totally ineffective – While Jos Buttler and Alex Hales were tonking the bowlers left, right and center, Rohit Sharma looked helpless against the English onslaught. The India skipper tried everything but Buttler and Hales gave India not even a single chance to get back into the game. Every India bowler was dealt severely by the duo and both never allowed the bowlers to settle in. Four of the 6 bowlers used by India had an economy rate of over 11 in the match while two had it over 7 as Hales and Buttler spared no one.
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8) The record partnership – While Jos Buttler was the aggressor in the initial overs, Alex Hales then took off and completely decimated the India bowlers. In just 28 balls Hales got to his fifty in the eighth over and almost there itself decided the outcome of the match. In just 10.1 overs England had 100 runs on the board as Buttler and Hales ran towards the finish line. Then in the 13th over, skipper Buttler got to his fifty with a maximum off Hardik Pandya as England camp and fans rejoiced. The duo never put the pedal off the accelerator and smashed a record T20 World Cup partnership of 170 to take England into the final.
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