India posted a competitive total of 168/6 in their semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Thursday.
India had a difficult start to their innings as they lost the wicket of KL Rahul early. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma tried to build a partnership but some really tight bowling by the England bowlers didn’t allow them to score at a swift rate.
Rohit departed for 27 from 28 deliveries in the ninth over of the innings, whereas Suryakumar Yadav also perished soon for 14. But Kohli and Pandya stuck around and took the game deep. Kohli got dismissed just after scoring his fifty in the 18th over. But Pandya carried on and went on an onslaught to take India to a competitive score of 168/6 in their 20 overs. Pandya’s efforts helped India in adding 68 runs in the last five overs, 54 of which came from Pandya’s bat.
England need to chase down 169 now to book their berth in the final. The Indian bowlers, however, will be hoping to defend the total in hand and set up a clash against Pakistan in the final.
Fast bowler Mark Wood (hip) and key batter Dawid Malan (groin) were ruled out prior to the toss, with veteran seamer Chris Jordan and top-order batter Phil Salt named as their replacements.
The loss of Wood in particular is a blow to England, with the pacer already having picked up nine wickets at the T20 World Cup and regularly hit speeds in excess of 150 km/h.
His spot in the XI will be taken by Jordan, who is a veteran of 82 T20I and last featured for England during their series against Australia just prior to the start of the T20 World Cup.
Salt didn’t play during that same series, with the 26-year-old’s last match for England coming during their seven-game series in Pakistan at the start of October.
India have stuck with the same XI that defeated Zimbabwe by 73 runs in the final match of the Super 12 stage of the tournament, meaning left-hander Rishabh Pant is preferred to Dinesh Karthik.
India: KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant (wk), Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
England: Alex Hales, Jos Buttler (c, wk), Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Liam Livingstone, Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Chris Jordan
