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India bowled out England and handed them a 68-run defeat in the second semifinal of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium in Guyana on Thursday to set up a final showdown with South Africa on 29 June.
Jasprit Bumrah then delivered another blow to England in the 5th over, clean bowling Phil Salt with a perfect delivery.
Axar Patel continued his excellent form, returning in the 6th over to bowl Jonny Bairstow out for a duck. In the 7th over, he struck again, stumping Moeen Ali.
The defending champions lost their eighth wicket when Liam Livingstone was run out by a brilliant throw from Kuldeep Yadav. Their ninth wicket fell in the 16th over as Adil Rashid was also run out, with Suryakumar Yadav hitting the bullseye.
On a tacky pitch with slow pace and low bounce, Rohit adjusted well to mix caution with aggression for smashing six fours and two sixes in his vital knock, while sharing a 73-run partnership with Suryakumar, especially after Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant fell early.
Handy runs from Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel at the fag-end helped India post a competitive total after being asked to bat first. For England, Chris Jordan took 3-37, while the spin duo of Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid had combined figures of 1-49 in eight overs.
With England getting a hint of movement due to cloud cover, they managed to nail their lengths well while targeting stumps mostly. Rohit got two streaky boundaries, while Kohli was convincing in his flicked six off Reece Topley.
But England took out Pant, as he flicked straight to mid-wicket off Sam Curran. Suryakumar opened his account with a straight drive past Curran for four, as India ended Power-play at 46/2. Rohit welcomed Rashid with a reverse-sweep and the conventional sweep fetching him two boundaries, followed by Suryakumar getting down on one knee to heave a slower ball from Jordan over long leg for six.
Just before the ninth over began, rain began to pour heavily and forced everyone to get off the field for 75 minutes. On resumption, Suryakumar began by sweeping Rashid for four, followed by Rohit launching Livingstone for a massive six over long-on.
Pandya cut Archer for four, before hitting back-to-back sixes off Jordan. But the pacer had the last laugh as Pandya smashed his slower delivery to long-off, followed by Shivam Dube nicking behind for a golden duck to make a double strike in the 18th over. Jadeja’s two boundaries off Archer, followed by Patel pulling Jordan for six ensured India crossed the 170-run mark.
With inputs from IANS.
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