India 171/7 (Rohit 57, Suryakumar 47, Jordan 3-37) defeated England 103 (Brook 25, Kuldeep 3-19, Axar 3-23) by 68 runs
India’s quest for a world title is in full swing. It’s been 11 years since they stood on the podium as champions. Now only a few hours and a rampant South African team can separate them from glory.
Tactical battles in difficult conditions
On a pitch like Guyana – where the pace was slow and the bounce was low – scoring runs on square and behind the wicket is costly. That’s because if the bowling unit is disciplined enough to hit the ball on a good length and keep the stumps in play, the batsman can’t push the pace. England planned to close down half of the outfield for India, but they weren’t always successful: the 69 runs, which included eight fours and three sixes, still came from where they shouldn’t have, at a strike rate of 192.
Rohit and risk
Rohit was scoring at a strike rate of 133 during the powerplay despite lacking control over his shots. For reference, his overall career strike rate in T20s is 141. This is the difference India were looking for. Don’t just bat waiting for a bad ball. Bat as if everything is a bad ball.
Rohit finally found his rhythm. From the fourth over itself, he was in control for 20 of the 26 balls and he used this control to great effect to score 40 runs including four fours and two sixes. He has accepted that risk is a part of T20 cricket and there is no point in avoiding it.
Recovery of Rasheed
India’s intent manifested as their batsmen moved around in the crease. Even a bowler like Adil Rashid found it difficult to deal with and it was a win as these were conditions where as a bowler all you had to do was hit a length to target the top half of the stumps. The England wrist-spinner had figures of 2-0-17-0. But he bounced back. On the other side of the second rain break, which ate up 153 minutes of the total time of this game, Rashid decided not to worry about the position of Rohit and Suryakumar and instead started holding the line on the off-stump. His reward was the wicket of the Indian captain after he made 57 off 39 balls. Rashid’s final two overs yielded only eight runs.
Spin is king
After Rashid was dismissed in the 14th over, India held back Shivam Dube, as they thought the pacers would take over from the fast bowlers. So Buttler found a reason to put pressure on Liam Livingstone, and relied on his right-arm all-rounder in the death overs as well. The part-timer finished the match with figures of 4-0-24-0. It was a sign that if he was proving to be unstoppable, so would Axar, Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja. India’s spin-bowling allrounders also played a key role along with Hardik Pandya in taking them to 171 as they smashed three sixes and two fours in the last two overs bowled by Jordan and Archer.
Box office characters
Guyana is spin friendly. As soon as the schedule was announced, it was mentioned that India would play there in the semi-finals. They included spinners in their team. Three of them found a place in the playing XI. Each of them bowled the jaffa in turns.
Axar changed the game. He came on the field soon after Jos Buttler had smashed three boundaries in one over off Arshdeep Singh and eliminated the biggest threat off his very first ball. The England captain went down to reverse sweep the left-arm spinner as you can’t really play a straight bat shot in these conditions. Rohit got a boundary when he took this risk. Buttler only gave a toe-end to Pant.
Axar’s first three overs yielded a wicket off the first ball. Jonny Bairstow once again decided to stay on the leg side and was bowled, and Moeen Ali’s England career possibly ended with him not realising where the ball went but then realising it was in Pant’s hand and breaking the stumps.
Kuldeep’s salvation
England were 49/4 when Kuldeep thrashed Sam Curran and then Harry Brook. England were the team that beat him so badly that he went into the white-ball wilderness after the 2019 ODI World Cup. Here, against a batsman coming after him, and with unorthodox shots, he did not panic. Kuldeep saw Brook going down to reverse-sweep, so he shifted the line to leg stump, and confused him, the flat trajectory and sheer speed also played a role in the ball escaping the swing of the bat and hitting the back stump.
In a further sign of their imminent defeat, England’s last recognised batsman, Livingstone, was run out in a mess with the lower order. The defending champions lost their crown, with six of their batsmen making single-digit scores and none of them going past 25.
Alagappan Muthu is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo
