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Alex Hales and Jos Buttler put on an unbeaten opening stand of 170 to help England thrash India by 10 wickets in the second semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Adelaide on Thursday.
Hales slammed an unbeaten 86 off 47 balls while Buttler hit an unbeaten 80 off 49 balls to chase down the total of 168/6 by India in a commanding style with four overs remaining.
With a dominating win, England will now face Pakistan in the final of the tournament at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Sunday, thirty years after the two teams met in the 1992 ODI World Cup final at the very same venue.
After being asked to bat first, India were off to a poor start as England reduced them to just 38/1 in the powerplay.
England did things right from the word go, denying them scoring opportunities towards the short square boundaries and forced their batters to play more towards the longer side of the ground, with Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes being the best bowlers for England.
Rashid was economical for his 1/20 off his four overs while Woakes ended with 1/24 from his three overs. Although Jordan was a bit expensive, he took three crucial wickets to end with figures of 3/43 off his four overs.
Virat Kohli scored 50 off 40 balls with four fours and one six while Hardik Pandya scored a brilliant 63 off 33 balls hitting four fours and five maximums to take India to 168/6.
In reply, India’s bowling was not quite up to the mark as they failed to pose any challenge against the opening pair of Hales and Butler who put them under pressure right from the start.
Moreover, they were also poor in the field, which eventually led them to get comprehensively outplayed and hammered by England in all three aspects of the game.
In the chase of 169, Bhuvneshwar Kumar was going to be the biggest threat with his swing bowling against Buttler. To counter that swing, he walked down and moved across to let his hands do the talking by collecting three fours in the opening over.
Buttler continued his aggressive approach by hitting regular boundaries off Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel through the off-side while Hales hammered a six over cover off Bhuvneshwar as England matched India’s power-play total in just 3.2 overs.
Hales was the most aggressive of the two, hitting Mohammed Shami over mid-off for a six and an outer edge running past keeper for four.
Axar came under attack as Hales and Buttler hit him for a six and four respectively to sign off from power-play unscathed. England were dominating the chase as they finished the powerplay at 63/0.
Post power-play, Hales stepped up the attack against Indian spinners. He swept off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin for a six and rocked back to hammer Axar over deep mid-wicket for another maximum to get his fifty off just 28 balls by the end of eighth over.
Hales then pulled Hardik Pandya for a six over deep mid-wicket to bring up a 100-run opening partnership off 61 balls and followed it up by slog-sweeping off Ashwin for another six. Buttler ramped Pandya over fine leg for four and got his fifty off 36 balls with a pulled six over deep square leg.
Buttler then hit Shami for two fours and a six in the 14th over, where he also got a reprieve as mid-off failed to take the catch and parried the ball to boundary rope. Fittingly, Buttler finished off the innings in style by dispatching Shami over long-on for a majestic six to enter the final.
Alex Hales was awarded Player of the Match for his scintillating 86 not out off 47 balls with four fours and seven sixes.
Brief Scores: India 168/6 in 20 overs (Hardik Pandya 63, Virat Kohli 50; Chris Jordan 3/43, Adil Rashid 1/20) lost to England 170/0 in 16 overs (Alex Hales 86 not out, Jos Buttler 80 not out) by ten wickets
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