Jos Buttler and Alex Hales steered England into the World Cup final with a 10-wicket thrashing of India in a clinical exhibition of T20 batting.
Inspired by the broadest of bats from their opening pair, England saved their best until the business end of the tournament with India never threatening to make it even a close contest. They made such light work of their 169 run target that India’s IPL superstars looked dazed and confused by the gap between the teams.
When Buttler hit the winning runs with a powerful straight drive for six there were still 24 balls remaining, but no-one could blame the Indian players for wanting to get off the field quickly on a horror night for them. Buttler was true to his word before this game in trying to create better memories from this Adelaide Oval ground where England were dumped out of the 2015 World Cup by Bangladesh.
And it was two of the men who had been a part of that team who exorcised those demons and then some. Hales became the third England batsman behind Buttler and Eoin Morgan to score 2,000 T20 runs as part of his 86 not out.
While Buttler hit 80 from 49 balls to give himself a shot at lifting a World Cup at the very first time of asking as captain, which would also make England the first men’s team to hold both World Cup formats at the same time.
The result might have spoiled the epic geo-political final that so many had wanted to see between India and Pakistan, but it sets up a mouthwatering repeat of the 1992 50-over World Cup final at the same ground.
Hardik Pandya had given the largely Indian supporting crowd plenty to cheer when he had struck 63 from 33 balls after India had been stuck into bat, but it turned out to be too little too late. A more appropriate summation of India’s awful night was when Mohammed Shami decided to relay throw a ball to Bhuvneshwar Kumar for no reason, threw it over his head leading to an all run four.
Or maybe when the same man tried to take a catch on the long off boundary, but only succeeded in dropping the ball and pushing it to the ropes. Earlier England were hoping for a fast start with the ball and as he so often does, Chris Woakes provided it with a beautifully presented seam and a back of a length delivery that KL Rahul nibbled through to Buttler.
It introduced Virat Kohli to what would become a raucous crowd, but as he strolled to the middle, the Indian faithful seemed a little unsure of themselves. If they were a little cagey in the stands, then so too were Rohit Sharma and Kohli in the middle finding the boundary just four times as they climbed to 38-1 at the end of the powerplay.
The dual spin combination of Adil Rashid and Liam Livingstone worked nicely before Chris Jordan, a replacement for the injured Mark Wood, struck to remove the skipper Rohit for 27. Dangerman Suryakumar Yadav had plenty of time to make an impact, but with the score 62-2 from 10 overs he needed to get his skates on.
Yadav took 10 runs from the last two balls of Ben Stokes’ over to get thing motoring, but in the next from Rashid he was gone, slicing the ball out to deep cover to end his stay. It meant England’s leg spinner finished with the outstanding figures of 1-20 from his four overs, to follow up an excellent display against Sri Lanka and showing that he had found his best form at just the right time.
All the while Kohli kept accumulating steadily if not spectacularly at the other end, no doubt keen to cut loose for a big finish. Kohli’s fourth fifty of the tournament came up from 39 balls, and from the 40th he was out, opening the face to a drive off Jordan only to find the hands of Rashid at short third man.
By now though Hardik had found his range and was happily taking England’s death bowlers Sam Curran and Jordan down. The final five overs cost England 68 runs, their most expensive of the tournament, and gave India the turbo-boosted finish they wanted. But after such a sluggish start it still wasn’t enough.
