• Jos Buttler’s side chased 169 with 24 balls to spare, as they joined Pakistan in Sunday’s final in Melbourne and boosted their quest to become double world champions.
• England had to make two changes for the game with top-order batter Dawid Malan ruled out with a groin injury, while pace bowler Mark Wood missed out with a hip injury.
Image: FILE
England’s 10-wicket victory over India to reach the T20 World Cup final was “mind-blowingly good”, says World Cup-winning captain Eoin Morgan.
Jos Buttler’s side chased 169 with 24 balls to spare, as they joined Pakistan in Sunday’s final in Melbourne and boosted their quest to become double world champions.
“They made a very good Indian side look ordinary and that is very difficult to do,” Morgan told Sky Sports. “It was like a boxing bout, but at two different weight divisions.”
England won the toss and elected to bowl despite crawling over the line in chases against Afghanistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 12 stage. The victory also bucked a trend of 11 T20 internationals at the Adelaide Oval where the team winning the toss had lost the game.
“A performance like that involves planning, executing and then putting them [India] to bed,” added Morgan.
“Jos Buttler has had an unbelievable game as captain. He used Moeen Ali, he used Chris Jordan, and their experience was evident.
“Against KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli - they out-thought them, out-executed them and made them look like an average team.”
England had to make two changes for the game with top-order batter Dawid Malan ruled out with a groin injury, while pace bowler Mark Wood missed out with a hip injury.
It meant first appearances of the tournament for Phil Salt, who was not needed with the bat but took an important catch in the field, and Chris Jordan, who took 3-43.
England started well and restricted India, but momentum swung when India added 68 off the last five overs, to take their total to 168-6. Buttler and Alex Hales, who has only returned to the England side in the last two months after a three-year exile for off-field incidents, then blazed England to a comfortable victory with a display of destructive hitting, which included 10 sixes.
“It certainly feels like it’s as close to perfect as we can get,” said Buttler. “The Ireland game [which England lost by five runs on the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method] certainly does feel a long time ago.
“But we have shown character as a group since then, in a huge game against New Zealand, and then tonight to put in our best performance. I’m immensely proud of the guys. To do it on a day like today in such a high-pressure game is immensely satisfying.
“It’s important for us to enjoy this and this performance so we will reflect on that and enjoy it, but there is one last dance to go.”
England will become the first team to be crowned double world champions (in the 50-over and T20 formats) if they win Sunday’s final, and vice-captain Moeen Ali says that is now the target.
“It was an unbelievable performance from ball one,” Moeen, 35, told BBC Test Match Special. “It was everything we wanted. It was the game we were searching for.”
England came into the winter, which has seen series wins over Pakistan and Australia before this tournament, after defeats to India and South Africa at home this summer. Those losses came after Buttler took over the captaincy from Morgan, who retired following injury and a loss of form.
“I feel Jos has been massive in the transition,” added Moeen. “This winter has been fantastic for him. He has captained unbelievably well in this tournament.
“We want to be known as a great white-ball team and to do that you have to win tournaments. There have been a few disappointments but it would be awesome to do it this time.”
BBC cricket correspondent Jonathan Agnew added that the performance will “go down as one of England’s finest T20 efforts”, while Ravi Bopara, who played 36 T20s for England between 2008 and 2014, said “England are a cut above India”.
The exit ends another disappointing campaign for India, who were knocked out in the Super 12s in last year’s tournament in the United Arab Emirates.
It comes despite them having the most respected T20 franchise league in the world in the Indian Premier League, and will likely result in questions about their approach. They were 38-1 after the six-over powerplay and then 62-2 at the halfway point - in contrast England were 63-0 and 98-0 - and they made numerous errors in the field.
“India are brilliant in India or sub-continent conditions but once they get out of there they are miles behind it,” said Bopara. “They are five, six, seven years behind it. They need to up their game. They need more dynamic cricketers.”
India captain Rohit Sharma added: “It is pretty disappointing how we turned up today. We still batted well especially at the back end to get that score but we were not good enough with the ball.
“When it comes to knockout stages it’s all about handling the pressure, and it comes down to individuals too. You cannot teach how to handle that pressure. But all these guys have played enough cricket to understand that, when they play in the IPL and games like that it’s also really high pressure. You’ve got to hold your nerve and stay calm but the way we started with the ball wasn’t good.”