What’s behind India’s unbeaten streak as they march into the final?

By K.R. Nayar
From Providence Stadium, Guyana

England, through their official Twitter account, had reminded India of their T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final defeat. This reminder now seems uncalled for, as India, keeping that defeat in mind, went for the kill in this semi-final, inflicting a 68-run defeat on England.

England may now have to recall this defeat as a painful memory for a long time. They had dreamt of defeating India again, going on to the final, and becoming the first team to win the World Cup three times. Unfortunately, their hopes were dashed at the Providence Stadium.

India's victory wasn't achieved through a one-man show. Their star batsman, Virat Kohli (9), once again  failed to reach double figures in this edition. In the previous three T20 World Cup semi-finals, he had scored an unbeaten 72 against South Africa in 2014, an unbeaten 89 against West Indies in 2016, and 50 against England in 2022. Two more of their top batsmen, Rishabh Pant (4) and Shivam Dube (0), joined Kohli in getting out for single-digit scores, but India still managed to post 171 for 7.

Rohit Sharma (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (SKY) (47) were the two batsmen whom England would have had planned extensively to subdue. The kind of strokes they play are unbelievable, making it difficult to set a field for them. All teams that have  made plans to stop them have failed so far. It remains to be seen whether South Africa, whom they face in the final, can succeed.

A winning score, according to those familiar with this ground, was around 167. And England made their first mistake after winning the toss. Instead of electing to bat first and post a challenging score, perhaps due to the threat of rain, they decided to bowl and restrict India. In Guyana, where there was a rain threat, fortunately, play stopped only for 75 minutes.

And neither Rohit nor SKY were affected by the rain stoppage. Rohit's clean hitting in this tournament continued unabated, and SKY played some outrageous shots. When Rohit was dismissed by leg spinner Adil Rashid, it was clear that this wicket would help also the Indian spinners immensely.

Rohit Sharma - leading from the front 

The beauty of Team India's batting is that when it seems doubtful whether they would come up with a winning total, someone steps up. Hardik Pandya played that role well with a quick 23. Ravindra Jadeja contributed a valuable unbeaten 17, and Axar Patel added ten runs.

The annihilation of the England team was clinical. Between overs 1 and 5, Axar Patel got the danger man and captain Jos Buttler out for 23. Buttler, attempting a reverse sweep, ended up lobbing the ball to the wicketkeeper. Another mistake from Butler to play such a shot on a challenging wicket, especially on the first ball from Patel. Jasprit Bumrah, adding salt to England’s wound, clean-bowled Philip Salt for 5.

Between overs 6 and 10, India took a firm grip on the match. With the first ball of the sixth over, Patel clean-bowled Jonny Bairstow with a skidder that hit the off stump. Next man Moeen Ali, though a fine spinner himself, was stumped off Patel for 8. When Kuldeep Yadav trapped Sam Curran leg before for 2, half the England side was back in the dugout for 49 in 8.1 overs.

It took only eight more overs to end England’s innings, with Kuldeep Yadav striking repeatedly. To make it easier for India, Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid were run out, and India marched out, conquering the defending champions.