India vs England: Five talking points from the T20 World Cup semi-final

Another ICC event knockout match ended on the wrong side for India as they lost to England by 10 wickets at the Adelaide Oval and put a full stop to the 2022 T20 World Cup campaign.

While India looked average throughout the semi-final, England looked at their precarious best and decimated the Indian bowling lineup winning the match by 10 wickets.

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Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya ensured India posted a reasonable total of 168/6 after 20 overs, but India fell 20 runs short of a defendable total as the second innings proved.

India could not create even half chances to dismiss Jos Buttler or Alex Hales and the duo smashed individual half-centuries while chasing the target in 16 overs.

While England can talk about this all day, Indians will find it hard to talk about it. But we have some important talking points from the match.

Read: India fall short in planning, execution, and courage against England in the semi-final

Jos Buttler-Alex Hales partnership

The English openers came to the stage at the perfect time and played one of the most perfect innings of their life as they not only decimated the Indian bowlers but were clinical with their power hitting and placements.

Each and every shot was played in gaps and no chances were given to the Indian fielders to catch or inculcate a runout. Interestingly, no DRS was required in the second innings either.

Jos Buttler started with a flurry of boundaries in the first over, and Alex Hales took over the mettle subsequently as Buttler played the second fiddle.

Once India seemed out of the contest, Buttler as well pulled his gun out of the cover and smashed the Indian bowlers for some mighty sixes including a 100-metre six to Mohammad Shami.

The duo stitched a 170-run partnership with Buttler scoring 80 from 49 deliveries (nine 4s, three 6s) and Hales contributing 86 from 47 balls (four 4s, seven 6s).

India’s weak bowling lineup exposed

On the contrary, the Indian bowlers were no match for England’s opening pair. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was hit for three boundaries in the first over, and probably that set the tone for England.

England took only three overs to match India’s powerplay score and Rohit Sharma introduced Axar Patel in the powerplay, something he has not done often.

India’s bowling was exposed against Bangladesh as well, but they were somehow able to recover against an emotional opposition. But England was thoroughly professional.

India couldn’t create any chances for wickets and the English openers were allowed to finish the game as early as 24 deliveries.

Rohit Sharma’s bowling changes as well seemed a bit lusterless as Shami was brought back in the 14^th over after he bowled his first over inside the powerplay. But by that time, the damage had already been done with England just 29 runs short of victory.

Only Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel had an economy rate of less than 10 – 7.5 runs per over each. It seemed like India’s already weak bowling was exposed at an important juncture in the tournament.

Hardik Pandya’s innings at the death

If India can take heart from anything in the semi-final, it would be Hardik Pandya’s blistering half-century in the death overs.

Hardik came to the crease in the 12^th over and scored at less than run-a-ball in the initial phase. But once he got settled, he tore into the England death bowling and scored 63 runs from 33 deliveries with four boundaries and five maximums.

Hardik’s late carnage helped India to score 47 runs in the last three overs and took the total beyond 160s, which looked to be settling around 150s at the 15^th over mark.

Virat Kohli’s return to imperious form

Virat Kohli was, alongside Suryakumar Yadav, the only Indian batter at his imperious best throughout the World Cup.

He once again took the charge of the innings with a fine half-century when the other end was not supportive of him. But he is used to it, and probably the team tends to misuse it, quite too often.

Kohli’s 50 came at 40 balls and might seem like he could have been better with his strike rate, but this is how Kohli is known to build his innings and tear into the bowling at the death overs. Albeit, he couldn’t against England.

However, he has returned to his previous best, it seems at the moment, and India’s run machine might add a few more stars to his name in the coming time. One of the stars added against England was the 4,000 run mark in T20Is – the first batter to achieve this feat.

But the Indian batting lineup has to ensure to reduce the burden on him and take the onus in future matches.

Indian openers’ poor form

One of the prime reasons that Kohli has to face the heat of the burden is the poor form India’s openers went through in the T20 World Cup. Rohit hit only one half-century – against the Netherlands, whereas KL Rahul hit two – against Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

It would safe to conclude that they failed to play to their strengths against decent bowling line-ups and if not for Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav, India would have been eliminated at the group stage itself.

There will be severe scrutiny against the duo, despite them being at the helm of affairs, and rightly so.

More so with a lot of young openers in the pipeline in the domestic circuit, it is going to be difficult to justify the places of the openers after a below-par performance at the ICC event.

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