In the semi-final of the T20 World Cup against England, India scored a dominant 68 runs victory and moved to the finals where they will face South Africa. The match was played in Guyana, where challenging pitch conditions determined the outcome.
Axar Patel picked up the Player of Match award after guiding India’s bowling attack with a splendid three-wicket haul that cost him only 23 runs from four overs. His miserly spell earned an economy rate of 5.80 runs per over and effectively slowed down England.
During his post-match presentation, Patel disclosed that they had noticed that pitch conditions would be quite challenging as early as Rohit Sharma’s captaincy period.
“It was a very good score. It could have easily defended at 170. And when we spoke to Rohit [Sharma] about how difficult it is to hit those big shots on this wicket. Because if you look at it one ball spins while another remains low skidding on. So I think we thought around 150-160 is a really good score, we can defend it,” Axar said as quoted by ANI.
Rohit Sharma (39 balls off 57) and Suryakumar Yadav (36 balls off 47) contributed significantly. Towards India’s final total which stood at 171/7 in their innings. Late in their innings Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja provided impetus that set India a challenging target.
Although winning the toss and opting to bowl, England struggled to adapt to conditions of the pitch. The Indian bowlers were disciplined throughout causing problems for their batting lineup. Since only Harry Brook (19 balls–25 runs) and Jos Buttler (15 balls–23 runs) showed some resistance before giving in.
Patel reiterated his bowling approach as being simple explaining that he exploited any help his pitch offered against English batsmen. He just wanted to keep a disciplined line and length in order to force errors from the batsmen, which worked well.
“But then at that time when you know that the wicket is helping. So then there’s no point of thinking much without doing anything extra. I thought if I keep it simple it will be more easier for me. Then in the dressing room we were talking about it’s not an easy wicket and… My plan was to make it difficult for him (batsman) and force him to think of playing some new shot. So, that’s what happened on the first ball. That was our plan,” he added.
The winner of this match will be involved in the finals against another unbeaten side South Africa. The final is scheduled for Saturday in Barbados. And it is bound to be one thrilling contest between two powerful cricketing nations competing for the coveted T20 World Cup trophy.
