Former Pakistan cricketer Rashid Latif dropped a huge prediction ahead of India’s T20 World Cup semifinal fixture vs England. Speaking on a Pakistani news show, Latif said England would beat India in the semis and reach the final. The winner of Thursday’s semifinal will face New Zealand in the final. New Zealand defeated South Africa in their semifinal fixture.
India has a 3-2 lead over England in T20 World Cup history. Both teams first met in the inaugural edition, which India won by 18 runs. The match also saw Yuvraj Singh smack six sixes in an over. Then, in the 2009 edition, India were left 3 short of 154 runs.
Then, in the 2012 edition, India defeated England by 90 runs. 10 years later, England thrashed India to reach the finals. Fast forward two years, and India, led by Rohit Sharma, avenged the defeat.
‘England will win the semifinals’: Rashid Latif
“England will win the semifinals,” said Latif.
“They are coming from difficult conditions, and 2-3 batters have succeeded. That’s what they need and their middle order is strong,” he said.
“England know these conditions very well. Even if just one England player performs, that will be enough for India to lose,” he further added.
England’s road to the semifinals has been filled with resilience. They have had to fight back in difficult situations to secure wins, including against Nepal and Pakistan, where they had to show composure. They also defeated New Zealand in the Super 8 stage, remaining unbeaten.
Speaking ahead of the match, England captain Harry Brook said, “We’ve won tight games, which in World Cups prove to be very important, and we’ve got a lot of confidence going into the deeper parts of the game.”
“We’ve won games, which we probably shouldn’t have won, and it just feels like we’ve never really been out of any game so far, which holds you in good stead in these world competitions.
“I don’t believe that we need a perfect game to win the competition. The games that we have won have been nowhere near perfect, and we still managed to get the wins convincingly in some of them, and then tight in the other games. It’s just the unity that we’ve had to be able to get across the line, the belief that everybody’s shown throughout the games and the calmness that we’ve had when the bowlers have stood at the top of the mark,” he added.
