Key events
WICKET! Suryakumar st buttler b Rashid 11 (India 190-4)
England’s two old salts gang up on India’s captain. Rashid bowls his trusty googly, SKY goes down the track and yorks himself, leaving Buttler to pull off a silky stumping.
15th over: India 177-3 (Dube 28, Suryakumar 5) Back comes Sam Curran, ever willing. He gets a sharp bouncer past Dube’s helmet, only to follow up with a wide and then a moon ball that Dube, happy to bide his time, thumps for four. Ten from the over, which almost feels like progress. Curran has 3-0-42-0: he always makes things happen, but today it’s been mostly the wrong things.
“England are looking down the barrel of a total north of 250,” says Colum Fordham, “which even considering England’s aggressive batting, looks mildly daunting. Only 3 or 4 wickets might thwart India but it looks unlikely. England’s bowlers have no answers to this brutal onslaught, not even the wily Rashid.
Brook is going to have to play a sensational innings and will be motivated after his dropped dolly. Samson? Devastating. Where’s Delilah when you need her?”
Well, she was one of my nicknames at school – does that count?
14th over: India 167-3 (Dube 20, Suryakumar 4) Here is SKY. Coming into quite a comfy situation for a captain, he opens his account with a breezy two.
Meanwhile his haggard opposite number is relying on Will Jacks once again. He has 3-0-26-2, while all the other bowlers have 11-0-141-1.
Brook turned to Jacks, who struck immediately. He threw it out wide of off to tempt Samson, who took the bait. Phil Salt again took a composed catch in the deep, renewing the double act that did for Abhishek, several years ago now.
That is the end of a phenomenal innings – 89 off 42 balls, or seven overs. Samson has got one hand on the Man of the Match award already.
WICKET!!! Samson c Salt b Jacks 89 (India 160-3)
Will Jacks does it yet again!
13th over: India 160-2 (Samson 89, Dube 18) Brook brings back Archer, hoping for a breakthrough or a miracle. Samson flails him over backward point for six, his 15th six of the tournament (from just four innings). Archer replies with an attempted toe ball that turns out to be a leg-side wide. Samson adds another six, a forehand drive down the line. Fifteen off the over and Archer now has 3-0-41-0. Worse still, it means that England have to do the same to Bumrah.
“Ooh err,” says Andrew Benton. “Brook’s got previous in the butterfingers department, you’d have thought he’d have put some effort into improving after his Ashes drops.” To be fair, he probably has.
12th over: India 145-2 (Samson 76, Dube 17) Rashid, England’s best bowler today as so often, finds the first ball of this over being belted for six by Dube. And the fifth ball too. Fifteen off the over and the Indian fans are dancing in the stands.
“An existential England T20 parable for our times,” says Mark Beadle. “Waiting for Buttler.”
11th over: India 130-2 (Samson 75, Dube 3) Overton returns, to be greeted with a straight six by Samson. The Overton window is getting wider: India’s projected total is now 231, almost unbeatable.
Mike Atherton comes on commentary and says “Jofra Archer bowled so poorly in the powerplay.” Atherton is a master broadcaster, but that seems harsh given that Archer is the only bowler to have bothered Samson. It was off his bowling that Brook dropped his clanger.
10th over: India 119-2 (Samson 67, Dube 1) So Rashid manages to strike a blow for England – after what feels like about 400 blows for India. Suryakumar Yadav springs a surprise by demoting himself in favour of Shivam Dube, who starts with a swing to leg. Rashid, again, ends his over well: one, dot, one after the wicket. He has 2-0-13-1 and he has given England a glimmer of hope.
“Desperate times call for desperate measures,” says Krish Krishnamoorthy. “Has the English team considered giving Samson a haircut?”
WICKET!! Ishan Kishan c Jacks b Rashid 39 (India 117-2)
A dance down the track, a toe-end, a skyer and a nice calm catch from Will Jacks, England’s one-man team.
9th over: India 112-1 (Samson 65, Ishan Kishan 35) Sam Curran returns from the other end. And both batters hit him for six! Ishan flicking over midwicket, Samson just lifting a pull over the fielder at deep square. Samson then smashes a four through extra-cover. Since reaching fifty, Samson has somehow managed to speed up (14 off his last five balls). If England don’t get a wicket soon, it will be game over.
Fifty to Samson!
8th over: India 92-1 (Samson 53, Ishan Kishan 28) Liam Dawson comes on and the carnage resumes. Ishan picks up a pair of twos and then both batters go ballistic. Samson hits a six over extra-cover, inside-out, and it takes him to a fearsomely good fifty off only 26 balls. Harry Brook’s drop has been horribly expensive. Ishan piles on the painwith a slog-sweep for six more.
Here’s Adam Hirst, quoting me back at myself. “‘As Finn Allen showed yesterday, an opener can win a semi-final all by himself.’ Ours can’t, Tim. We’re back to hoping Buttler will come good again, like we have been for most of the last 12 years in one form or another.”
Ours may look as if they can’t at the moment, Adam, but they’ve done it before – at least Buttler has.
7th over: India 71-1 (Samson 45, Ishan Kishan 16) Sure enough, Rashid’s first ball is drilled through extra-cover by Samson. That brings up the fifty partnership, 51 off just 25 balls. Rashid restores order by varying his pace. Dot, one, one, dot: only six off the over, which makes it the best thing to happen to England since Abhishek’s wicket.
Here comes Adil Rashid. “Against two very fine players of spin,” says Nasser Hussain, ominously.
6th over: India 67-1 (Samson 41, Ishan Kishan 16) Off goes Jacks (2-0-19-1, very respectable) and on comes Sam Curran, bearing his wide range of slower balls. Samson is wise to them, waiting and waiting and chipping for four down the ground, then steering to third man. When Curran greets Ishan with a bumper, it’s too high and called a wide. Curran gets better as the over goes on but still goes for a few singles. The powerplay ends with India on Easy Street. According to CricViz, they already have a 76pc chance of a win.
Meanwhile, a Kiwi writes. “Now that my team has made it through to the final, I’m obviously supporting England,” says Alistair O’Connor. “Do I have to spell out why?” Ha. “The NZ-India final of the one-day Champions’ Trophy last year left a bad taste in my mouth. India had it wrapped up, but let it run to the last over. Unsporting, in my view.” That’s not the reason I was expecting.
5th over: India 55-1 (Samson 31, Kishan 15) Archer, nursing those bad figures, gives way to Jamie Overton. each batter takes a sighter, and a single, before Ishan Kishan tucks in – a wristy whip for four, a flashing drive for four more. Overton manages a rare dot with a full ball, and another, with a spicy bouncer. But India are still in charge: this partnership ihas raced to 35 off 18 balls.
4th over: India 45-1 (Samson 30, Kishan 6) Samson is batting like a man who has just made an unbeaten 90. He square-drives Jacks for four, and Ishan Kishan joins in the fun with a pinpoint sweep for four. Both batters take comfy singles too, and India are running away with this – though Salt does save a single with an acrobatic leap at cover. Fielding often says something about morale and Salt looks in good fettle despite his failures with the bat.
3rd over: India 34-1 (Samson 25, Kishan 0) Samson makes England pay for that howler by pulling Archer for six over deep square. When Archer responds with a yorker, Samson glides it through gully for four. He’s got 25 off only 11 balls and Jofra who usually strikes in the powerplay, has 2-0-26-0.
Dropped!
Archer lures Samson into a drag to mid-on … where Harry Brook lets a simple chance slip through his fingers.
2nd over: India 20-1 (Samson 11, Kishan 0) Brook threw the ball to Will Jacks, the odd-job man who has become England’s matchwinner. He started with an arm ball, squirted for four by Abhishek, then settled for three balls before being lofted over extra-cover for another four. Abhishek tried to go big again and picked out the man at deep midwicket.
WICKET! Abhishek c Salt b Jacks 9
Will Jacks does it again!
1st over: India 12-0 (Samson 11, Abhishek 1) Jofra Archer’s second ball beats Samson, who averages only 8 against him. But his third ball, dug in, is pulled for four over mid-on, if not with much timing. And the fourth ball, also short, is flipped over fine leg for six! So he’s beaten that average already. “That’s where Samson wants it,” says Dinesh Karthik. “He’s deep in the crease, almost both legs behind the crease.” When Jofra gets the memo and pitches it up, Samson pushes into the covers for a single, and Abhishek follows suit. Advantage India!
An email! “Well Tim,” says Guy Hornsby, “the only thing we know is that no one knows anything. These two teams are capable of fireworks. India, the home favourites, star-studded and Uber talented. England, scraping through games with cameos, new and old players to the fore. So many storylines and any result possible really. RIP my nerves, come on England!”
Funny how spellcheck assumes that, by uber, we now mean Uber.
Brook gives someone a thumbs-up. He’s standing at slip next to Buttler, so England will be on the attack for at least one ball.
England’s first task is to stop Abhishek Sharma and Sanju Samson getting off to a flyer. As Finn Allen showed yesterday, an opener can win a semi-final all by himself.
Will Jacks belts out God Save The King like a peroxide version of a Chelsea pensioner. As soon as it finishes, Harry Brook pops a piece of chewing gum into his mouth. The young chaperones look on with mild curiosity from under their yellow bucket hats.
The teams come out for the anthems, through an avenue of fireworks. They are, as Ian Bishop puts it, “chaperoned by youngsters.”
The teams
Looking at the two line-ups, you’d have to say that India have the more powerful batting. Plus the supreme marksman in Bumrah, and a slow left-armer, Axar Patel, who eats English batters for breakfast. But this England team bat deep and never say die.
India 1 Abhishek Sharma, 2 Sanju Samson (wkt), 3 Ishan Kishan, 4 Suryakumar Yadav (capt), 5 Tilak Varma, 6 Hardik Pandya, 7 Shivam Dube, 8 Axar Patel, 9 Arshdeep Singh, 10 Varun Chakravarthy, 11 Jasprit Bumrah.
England 1 Phil Salt, 2 Jos Buttler (wkt), 3 Harry Brook (capt), 4 Jacob Bethell, 5 Tom Banton, 6 Sam Curran, 7 Will Jacks, 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Jofra Archer, 10 Liam Dawson, 11 Adil Rashid.
Buttler does some of the talking
An interesting detail from England’s huddle, spotted by our friends at Cricinfo. Harry Brook addressed the team as you’d expect, but first he got Jos Buttler to speak. Buttler has won a T20 World Cup as captain, one of only two Englishmen to do that (with Paul Collingwood), so he has priceless experience to impart. But he needs a helping hand at the moment and this sounds like a wise move, forcing him to think about what to say, and how to lift the others, rather than dwell on his own dismal run.
“He loves batting on this ground,” says his friend Eoin Morgan. “Played here for Mumbai Indians, came back many times and made runs… He’ll be hoping, as the fans will, that he turns up today.” He sure will.
From our man in Mumbai
Simon Burnton sends a bulletin from the ground. “The area around the Wankhede,” he reports, “was chaos and carnage even more than two hours out, when I rocked up. But despite the throngs along Marine Drive then, the ground is still far from full now – probably because there’s chuff all to do once you get in, with absolutely no lawns, deckchairs, Veuve Clicquot lounges, or comfortable hang-out areas of any sort. People know that and are therefore planning a late rush to their seats.
“It’s blowing an absolute gale in Mumbai today, which may affect high catches later, though it didn’t seem to impact Surya’s extraordinarily high coin toss.”
SKY-high! Thank you, Simon.
Niggly does it
“T20 is a fickle game,” says Brook, “but we’ve had some niggly wins and hopefully we can scrape through.” He confirms that England are just making one change, with Jamie Overton replacing Rehan Ahmed, who made a very good Cinderella.
Suryakumar Yadav, sounding immensely relaxed, says he’s not changing a winning team.
Toss: England win and bowl
Time for the toss, and Ravi Shastri presents it like a boxing promoter. Brook calls heads, heads it is, and he opts to chase.
‘Wagon wheels and whatnot’
Pre-match reading: Simon Burnton’s preview from Mumbai. It contains the best line ever to pop out of Harry Brook’s mouth.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the biggest thing since the Ashes. After a largely wretched winter, England have somehow made their way to a World Cup semi-final. They are now David, up against Goliath: the world’s best T20 team, on their home turf. But India have looked vulnerable at times in this tournament and England have kept finding a way to win, mostly by luring the opposition into a false sense of security and then relying on Will Jacks to bail them out. Being the underdogs should suit them nicely.
It’s the third time in a row that these two sides have met in the semi-final of a T20 World Cup. England won the first with the greatest of ease before India took all too predictable revenge in the second. This one is harder to call. India bring more firepower, especially now that Sanju Samson has come to the party. They have Jasprit Bumrah, the world’s most lethal fast bowler, and spinners to spare.
England are a mess at the top of the order, where Phil Salt has mostly faltered and poor Jos Buttler has gone from a superstar to a walking wicket, a lost soul who has forgotten how to hit a four (good luck finding your form while facing Bumrah). But Harry Brook still has a few aces – the red-hot Jacks, the crafty Sam Curran, the ageless Adil Rashid and the rapid Jofra Archer, not to mention Brook’s own big-hitting.
My considered opinion is that anything can happen.