England outclassed India in the second semi finals of T20 world cup to book their boarding pass for the finals at Melbourne cricket ground on 13th November. Interestingly, England won the toss and elected to bowl first on a track which was slow but had everything for the batsman to exploit. Historically, the team winning the toss at Adelaide has lost all the T20 matches at the venue but England managed to change the history today with a 10 wicket thumping win over India.
India put up a total of 168 runs at the end of 20 overs after scoring more than 60 runs in the last 4 overs courtesy Hardik Pandya’s final flourish’ 63 off 33 balls. Virat Kohli made us understand why Adelaide is his den as he scored 50 off 40 balls and got India to a respectable total after losing some early wickets. Spin played a vital role as the the pitch played slow and Adil Rashid and non regular Liam Livingstone slowed the Indian innings in the middle overs.
England openers were not on song in the tournament but they brought their “A” game into the equation in the semi finals and thrashed every bowler to not give any chance to India to settle and make out something from the match. Hales counter attacked after some fierce hitting by Buttler upfront and India were all but “out of the game” in the starting ten overs of the game.
After the drinks break, India brought Arshdeep into the attack but Hales didn’t stop from here and kept playing his counter attacking game. England batters didn’t give any chance to any Indian bowler and chased down the target with 24 balls to spare.
From 152/0 from last year edition game against Pakistan to 170/0 against England in the semi finals in this edition, the story continues to haunt India. Its worth mentioning that India last played the semi finals of the world cup in 2016 and Virat Kohli still is the last wicket taker for India at the T20 world cup in the semi finals.
