Axar Patel was the game-changer. Axar Patel came on immediately after Jos Buttler had whacked Arshdeep Singh for three fours in an over and with his very first ball took out the biggest threat. England’s captain went down to reverse-sweep the left-arm spinner because really in these conditions you couldn’t just sit in and play straight-bat shots. Rohit found the boundary when he took that gamble earlier. Buttler only found a toe-end to Pant.
India’s quest for a world title is well on course. It’s been 11 years since they stood on the podium as champions. Now all that separates them from glory is a few hours’ time and a fiery South African team. Rohit Sharma and his men dismantled the defending champions England in the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final, bowling them out for a mere 103 after first whacking them around to make 171 in Providence, Guyana. The mismatch from Adelaide 2022 was turned on its head.
Pitch and Toss
“Humidity – 72%, wind is expected to be 12km/hr. Dimensions – 69m and 70m square, straight – 79m. This pitch looks very dry, looks cracked and the cracks are quite solid and not moving around. I expect this pitch to be quite low and skiddy, particularly for the spinners. I don’t think we’ll see the kind of bounce or uneven bounce that we saw in Trinidad for the first semifinal in Trinidad. The average score batting first in a day game is about 167. A low skiddy pitch which tends to favour the spinners.” reckons Harsha Bhogle and Micheal Atherton
England skipper Jos Buttler won the toss and chose to bowl with no changes in the team. Indian skipper Rohit Sharma batting first also played with the same unchanged XI.
Rohit Sharma keeps India’s noses in front in the Powerplay
After the scars of Adelaide 2022, India weren’t going to plod along even if the conditions in Guyana were slow, low and very dissimilar. The intent was apparent in how Rohit’s first boundary was a streaky leading edge over short third man but the India captain kept at it, even if it meant smashing one through the hands of Phil Salt at point.
At the other end, Virat Kohli looked far less convincing while trying to play the power game early on and fell after scoring run-a-ball 9, which dropped his average this edition to a lowly 10.71, a far cry from his form at the IPL. Rishabh Pant wasn’t the answer either on the day, perishing at mid-wicket in Sam Curran’s first over, but Rohit’s four boundaries ensured that India were there and thereabouts the par score, admittedly in conditions where the odd ball was staying below the shin.
Within the powerplay period, Rohit was scoring at a strike rate of 133 with shots he was not at all in control of. For context, his overall career strike rate in T20Is is 141. This has been the difference India have been searching for. Don’t just bat waiting for the bad ball. Bat as if everything is a bad ball.
Rohit eventually settled. Since the fourth over, he was in control of 20 of 26 balls and he used that control to great effect, scoring 40 runs including four fours and two sixes. He’s accepted that risk is a part of T20 cricket and there’s no point being averse to it.
The Rohit-Suryakumar show in the middle overs propel India
India have been the fastest scoring team in the middle overs this edition and once again looked the part, scoring at 8 rpo in this phase. The run-rate was down to a sensational 73-run partnership between Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav on either side of a 75-minute rain delay, the duo going hard at anything remotely loose and keeping at the tempo despite the long break in play.
Curran came in for some punishment in his second over, conceding 19 runs which featured a six each from both the set batters. Rohit in particular was aggressive against Adil Rashid and would end up losing his wicket to the leg spinner when a googly stayed low, but not before shipping India through the difficult middle overs against the old ball.
India’s intent manifested in the form of their batters moving around in the crease. Even a bowler of the calibre of Adil Rashid found it hard to cope and that was a triumph because these were conditions where as a bowler all you had to do was hit a length to target the top of the stumps. The England wrist spinner was 2-0-17-0. But he recovered.
On the other side of the second rain break, which consumed 153 minutes of this game’s time in total, Rashid decided not to worry about where Rohit and Suryakumar were positioning themselves and instead began to hold a line on off stump. His reward was the wicket of the India captain for 57 off 39. Rashid’s final two overs went for only eight runs.
Jordan impedes India’s charge but India manages 171 for 7 in 20 overs
With Rashid done by the 14th over, India held Shivam Dube back believing that the quicks would be taking over. So Buttler found reason to press Liam Livingstone to work, trusting his right-arm all-sorts even at the death. The part-timer finished with figures of 4-0-24-0. It was sign.
If he was proving to be unhittable, Axar, Kuldeep and Ravindra Jadeja would be as well. India’s spin-bowling allrounders had a hand to play in getting them to 171 as well, alongside Hardik Pandya, as they struck three sixes and two fours in the last two overs bowled by Jordan and Archer.
How many will be enough on this pitch? India went into this final batting lap with that question in mind, but the answers proved hard to come. Eleven balls after Rohit was dismissed, Suryakumar was caught in the deep brilliantly by Chris Jordan when he mistimed a back-of-the-hand slower ball from Jofra Archer, forcing Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, both of whom walked out to bat ahead of Shivam Dube, to forge a recovery.
Pandya then broke the shackles with back-to-back flat sixes against Jordan but would fall trying to make it three in three. When Dube fell for a golden duck in the first over, it was down to Axar and Jadeja to steer India in the final moments and the duo did a phenomenal job, adding as many as 24 runs in the last two overs.
Axar Patel all over England in the Powerplay
Guyana is spin-friendly. The schedule, as soon as it was announced, suggested India would play there in the semi-final. They packed their squad with spinners. Three of them found place in the XI. Each of them took turns bowling jaffa.
Axar Patel was the game-changer. Axar Patel came on immediately after Jos Buttler had whacked Arshdeep Singh for three fours in an over and with his very first ball took out the biggest threat. England’s captain went down to reverse-sweep the left-arm spinner because really in these conditions you couldn’t just sit in and play straight-bat shots. Rohit found the boundary when he took that gamble earlier. Buttler only found a toe-end to Pant.
Each of Axar Patel’s first three overs had a wicket off the first ball. Jonny Bairstow once again choosing to stay leg side and getting bowled, and Moeen Ali’s England career potentially ending with him unsure of where the ball had gone only to realize it was right there in Pant’s hand as he broke the stumps.
He wasn’t bowling in whites, he wasn’t bowling in Ahmedabad and he wasn’t bowling with the pink ball but Axar Patel once again proved a handful for England.
Given the ball in the PowerPlay, the left-arm spinner deceived Jos Buttler on the reverse-sweep with his first ball and delivered India their most important breakthrough of the match. In Axar Patel’s next, Jonny Bairstow was bowled by one that skidded low. And sandwiched between these two wickets was a Jasprit Bumrah classic. It was the fast off break that he bowls and which on this occasion found a way through Phil Salt.
England succumb to spin and Kuldeep Yadav in middle overs
If Axar’s deliveries weren’t enough of a hint, Kuldeep Yadav turned one big in his first over to portend what was to follow. Lots of spin, inconsistent bounce and no pace off the pitch – factors which combined to decimate England against the old ball.
It was Axar Patel once again who bookended this phase of play, starting by having Moeen Ali stumped down the legside and wrapping it up by running out Jofra Archer. But in the middle, it was Kuldeep playing the protagonist. Curran and Jordan were trapped lbw but the pick of his three wickets was Harry Brook, who tried to play back-to-back reverse sweeps against the spinner and lost his legstump as a result.
England were 49 for 4 when Kuldeep got into the act, bamboozling Sam Curran, and then outsmarting Harry Brook. England were the team that took him down so hard he went off into white-ball wilderness after the 2019 ODI World Cup.
Here, against a batter coming after him, and with unconventional shots to boot, he didn’t panic. Kuldeep saw Brook going down to reverse-sweep, so he shifted the line onto leg stump, and left him in a tangle, the flatter trajectory and the quicker pace also playing a part in ball evading the swing of the bat and crashing into the stumps behind
India wrap it with 20 balls to spare to set final date with South Africa
As further sign of their impending defeat, England’s last recognized batter, Livingstone, was run-out after a mix-up with the lower order. The defending champions yielded their crown, with six of them making single-digit scores and none of them going past 25.
By the time both teams were in this phase of play, India were counting down to the win. Surya Kumar’s run-out of Rashid and Bumrah’s lbw of Archer delivered England out of their misery, and India into yet another ICC final, their first at a T20 World Cup in 10 years.
In the first innings. Jos Buttler felt England let India score “20-25 runs too many”.
Despite England’s histrionic 101 all out, you’d have to say that India pretty much had the game in the bag when they put 171 on the board, asking the opposition to chase the highest ever target in a day game in Guyana. The pitch got slower and lower, like Rohit Sharma expected it to, and in hindsight it was a good toss to lose.
Buttler opted to chase keeping in mind the wet forecast but the decision was fraught with the risk of batting second on a pitch that was slowing down by the minute. And England’s worst fears came true, their struggles magnified in conditions tailor-made for India’s slow bowlers.
Presentations and Road Ahead
Jos Buttler the loosing skipper said : India certainly outplayed us. We let them get 20-25 runs too many. It was a challenging surface that they played well on. They outplayed us and fully deserved the win. Very different conditions (than 2022), credit to India. They played a really good game of cricket.
With the rain around, didn’t expect the conditions to change that much. Don’t think it really did. They outbowled us. They had an above-par score. I don’t think that toss was necessarily the difference between the teams. They’ve got some fantastic spinners. Our two guys (Rashid and Livingstone) bowled well. In hindsight, should have bowled Moeen in that innings with the way spin was playing.
They had an above-par score and with a brilliant bowling attack, it was always going to be a tough chase. With everything that’s happened throughout the whole tournament, really proud of everyone’s effort to be here. You can only play who’s put in front of you. We’ve had lots of adversities throughout the competition, we stuck well together as a group, played some really good cricket in patches but came up short when it mattered the most.
Rohit Sharma the winning skipper said : Very satisfying to win this game. We worked really hard as a unit. To win this game like that was a great effort from everybody. We adapted to the conditions really well. The conditions were a little challenging, we had to adapt and that’s been the success story for us so far till this game. We have adapted to the conditions really well, played the conditions really well.
The bowlers and the batters, if they play according to the conditions, things falls in place and that’s exactly what happened for us today. Very pleasing to see how we came through this game. At one stage, we were feeling 140-150 and as the game went on, we got some runs in the middle, me and Surya. We got that partnership, then we said another 25 runs more.
I can set the target in my mind, but I don’t want to let anyone know about it, to the batters … because … they are all all instinctive players and I want them to go out there and play freely without thinking too much about what’s the par score. We bat well, we understand the condition well, we will get to a good score and that’s exactly what happened. We got to 170 which I thought was a very good score on that pitch and then the bowlers were fantastic.
They (Axar and Kuldeep) are gun spinners. When the conditions like that are in front of them, It’s difficult to play some shots. The pressure is on them as well to come and execute those balls but they were calm and knew what to bowl. We had a little chat after the first innings – try and hit the stumps as much as possible, keep the stumps in play. He (Kohli) is a quality player.
Any player can go through that. We do understand his class and we do understand his importance in all these big games. Form is never a problem. When you’ve played cricket for 15 years, form is never a problem. He’s looking good, the intent is there, he’s probably saving for the final. Absolutely (backing Kohli for the final). We have been very calm as a team. We understand the occasion (final), it’s a big occasion.
For us it’s important we keep calm. Staying composed helps you make good decisions and that”ll be required. We got to keep making good decisions throughout the 40 overs. That’ll help us making the game through. In this game, we were very steady and calm.
We didn’t panic too much and that has been the key for us. You got to play good cricket and that’s what we want to do in the final as well. We’ll try our best, that’s all I can say. The team is in good shape, they are playing well. All I can hope is to put up another good show come the finals.
Axar Patel Player of the Match for his 3 wickets said : I have bowled in the powerplay in the past, so I had to bowl in the powerplay, that was the plan. The wicket was stopping and keeping low, so tried to bowl in the right areas. The wicket was slow, so I tried to bowl slower in this match, it worked for me.
Wouldn’t have worked had I bowled quicker, would have been easier for their batters. Our batters told us that the wicket wasn’t easy, so 160 was a good total according to us. That partnership (between Rohit and SKY) was magnificent, they scored the occasional boundaries and rotated the strike. Not thinking about Barbados at the moment, will celebrate this player of the match award first.
India storm into the T20 World Cup final with a thumping win over the defending champions. Buttler opted to field and Rohit was happy to bat first on a dry surface. Despite losing Kohli and Pant cheaply inside the powerplay, Rohit and Suryakumar stitched a crucial half-century partnership. Even a 75-minute rain break didn’t hamper their momentum much. Crucial contributions from Hardik, Jadeja and Axar Patel took India’s total to 171.
Although it looked above-par, India would have been wary of England. Buttler started on a good note, struck three boundaries off Arshdeep’s 2nd over. Axar Patel struck off his very first ball by removing the dangerous Buttler, who fell trying to reverse-sweep, and England lost their plot completely after that. The in-form Salt was deceived by Bumrah and then India choked England with spin. Three wickets apiece for Axar Patel and Kuldeep, a couple of run-outs and then Bumrah completed the formalities to put the final nail in the coffin for Buttler and Co.
England, under Mott & Buttler, won the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia. But they’ll be facing some tough questions back home. They couldn’t get past the Group Stage in the 2023 ODI World Cup and although they made it to the semis here, England were able to register just one win against a Test-playing country.
From India’s point of view, Adelaide 2022 has been avenged but they have a bigger goal in front of them which is to end their 11-year ICC title drought. They are up against a team that’s playing a World Cup final for the first time. We’ve had two lopsided semifinals but the final at Barbados will be a clash between two unbeaten sides in this competition. We’ll be back to bring you all the action on Saturday from that mouth-watering finale.
India’s quest for a world title is well on course. It’s been 11 years since they stood on the podium as champions. Now all that separates them from glory is a few hours’ time and a fiery South African team.