Captain Rohit Sharma scored a half-century after which Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel led the way in shredding England to pieces as India won the semi final by 68 runs and reached the final of the 2024 T20 World Cup. They will face South Africa in the title clash on Saturday at the Kensington Oval in Barbados.
Rohit led the way once again for India as they got to a score of 171/7 in 20 overs. England lost half their side before reaching 50. Axar Patel got the breakthrough in the form of Jos Buttler in the fourth over and went on to take a wicket off the first balls of both his subsequent overs. Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali were those England players who fell to him while Phil Salt was sent back by Jasprit Bumrah in the fifth over. Kuldeep Yadav also got among the wickets in the ninth over with the wicket of Sam Curran.
Rohit earlier scored 57 in 39 balls in a 73-run stand with Suryakumar Yadav that came in just 50 balls. The pair had to adjust to their innings being interrupted by a lengthy rain break that lasted over an hour.
The pair off to a sluggish restart on resumption. Rohit eventually scored his half-century but fell soon thereafter to Adil Rashid in the 14th over. Suryakumar continued to race along and fell to Jofra Archer in the 16th over on 47 off 36 balls. Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel then smashed away and got India past 170, with 160 usually being the par score at the Providence Stadium.
Jos Buttler earlier won the toss and chose to bowl first, putting India to bat at the Providence Stadium in Guyana in the semi final of the 2024 T20 World Cup. Toss was delayed by nearly an hour and a half due to intermittent rain in Georgetown. Virat Kohli’s lean run continued as he fell for just nine runs in the third over of the match. India lost another wicket in the form of Rishabh Pant in the powerplay, at the end of which their score was 46/2. Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav were just starting to look good when rain returned and forced the players off the field after the eighth over. India’s score stood at 65/2 at the time of the stoppage.
