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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.
