Mumbai: While solid and enterprising in the run up to the T20 World Cup, India’s batting surprisingly turned up flat at the ICC’s marquee event at home.
From their opening match at the Wankhede Stadium against minnows United States of America, where they huffed and puffed to a total of 161, their famed line-up just didn’t fire as a unit. Even in the crucial Super Eights win over West Indies last Sunday, the home team had many nervous moments during their chase.
Despite their progress to the semi-final, a perfect game had been missing in the six matches India had played so far.
On Thursday, the Men in Blue delivered. They chose the perfect stage for the perfect batting show to book their place in Sunday’s final.
In the semi-final game at the Wankhede Stadium, led by a blazing knock of 89 off 42 balls by opener Sanju Samson, India put on a display of explosive hitting on a flat Mumbai track to power to 253/7 and eke out a seven-run win.
During England’s chase, Jacob Bethell hit a valiant century, but the rest of the line-up were victims of the scoreboard pressure.
He was like a one-man army. When he reached his hundred off 45 balls with a six off Hardik Pandya on the first ball of the 19th over, he had brought the equation down to 33 off 11 balls. He had built a partnership of 50 (27 balls) with Sam Curran (18 runs) but two balls later the latter holed out to midwicket fielder Tilak Varma off Hardik Pandya to make it 222/6.
It all boiled down to 30 off the last six balls. All the frontline pacers — Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya and Arshdeep Singh — had completed their quota of overs. Shivam Dube was left to bowl the final over.
Dube held his nerve to deliver a near yorker on off. Bethell hit to long off and was run out trying to take on Hardik Pandya’s arm for a second run. The wicket finally ended England’s challenge.
Faced with a mountain to climb, England had no option but to go all out for quick runs. They kept getting runs but in the process kept losing wickets. They lost three wickets during the Powerplay overs. Phil Salt fell on the first ball of the second over, but the biggest setback was captain and in-form batter Harry Brook falling for just seven.
In the Indian innings, Samson received solid support from Ishan Kishan, who smashed an 18-ball 39 and Shivam Dube who made a 25-ball 43. Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma provided the final burst with cameos of 12-ball 27 and seven-ball 21 respectively.
Not only their batting, India’s fielding also had been found wanting at the World Cup. But in the semi-final they were brilliant. The highlight of the effort was Axar Patel’s two catches.
On the first ball of the fifth over, when Brook miscued a hit off Jasprit Bumrah’s slower ball, Axar ran back about 25 metres from cover and took the a diving catch over his shoulder.
Later when Will Jacks was helping Bethell take the game away from India, Axar again came up with a brilliant effort at the boundary line to break the fifth wicket partnership of 77 runs (in 39 balls). Axar did well to sprint from deep point to hold on to running catch of Jacks’ hit, off Arshdeep Singh’s full toss, but the momentum was carrying him out of the boundary line and he passed on the ball to Shivam Dube before stepping out.
SAMSON SHOW
As a batter, if you love true bounce then there’s nothing better than Mumbai’s red soil playing surface. It brought the best out of Samson. Except for offering the catch to mid-on fielder off Jofra Archer, he hardly put a foot wrong. High on confidence after his blazing match-winning unbeaten 97 in his last innings against West Indies, Samson came out firing in the semi-final game.
The dropped catch when he was 15 was the only blemish of the opener’s essay.
England’s fast bowler Jofra Archer, who had tormented him in the T20 series last year with short pitch bowling was tamed, with Samson scoring 38 off 15 balls against him. Samson brought up his fifty with a stunning six off left-arm spinner Liam Dawson over extra cover, off 26 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes.
The only sore point for India was the early loss of Abishek Sharma, out for 9 runs. England expectedly started with their off-spinner, Will Jacks, against him. The left-hand opener cut the first ball to backward point for a four, and then stepped out and converted a full toss for another four but to the disappointment of the packed house next ball he holed out to midwicket, Phil Salt, the lone man on the leg side boundary.
