England somersaulted and cartwheeled their way to a stunning and historic thrashing of India in Adelaide to rocket into the T20 World Cup final, as Alex Hales and Jos Buttler took on the world’s best-supported and most lavishly resourced side and toyed with them like a cat might a ball of wool, making them look approximately as threatening.
Pakistan await in Melbourne on Sunday, and will not have enjoyed what they saw of their opponents here. England reached 170 with all 10 wickets and four overs to spare, Hales (who scored 86 off 47) and Buttler (80 off 49) producing not just the largest but in any sense you like the greatest opening partnership in England’s Twenty20 history. By the end India were a rabble, their performance summed up by England completing an all-run four, vanishingly rare in this format, after Mohammed Shami fielded and tried to toss the ball to a teammate but missed, and by Suryakumar Yadav racing back from mid-off and not only failing to catch Buttler but managing instead to shovel the ball a further 10 yards to the rope.
