Georgetown (Guyana), Jun 28 (IANS): Captain Rohit Sharma slammed his 32nd T20I fifty through a 39-ball 57, while Suryakumar Yadav slammed 47 off 36 balls as the duo helped India post 171/7 against England in the second semifinal of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 at the Providence Stadium.
On a tacky pitch with slow pace and low bounce, Rohit adjusted well to mix caution with aggression for smashing six fours and two sixes in his vital knock, while sharing a 73-run partnership with Suryakumar, especially after Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant fell early.
Handy runs from Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel at the fag-end helped India post a competitive total after being asked to bat first. For England, Chris Jordan took 3-37, while the spin duo of Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid had combined figures of 1-49 in eight overs.
With England getting a hint of movement due to cloud cover, they managed to nail their lengths well while targeting stumps mostly. Rohit got two streaky boundaries, while Kohli was convincing in his flicked six off Reece Topley. But in a bid to heave Topley across the line, Kohli didn’t account for the length ball shaping back in and saw his bails being rattled.
Despite Rohit not getting the desired timing on his shots, he managed to pull Topley for four and then stayed leg-side to drive the pacer stylishly for another boundary. But England took out Pant, as he flicked straight to mid-wicket off Sam Curran. Suryakumar opened his account with a straight drive past Curran for four, as India ended Power-play at 46/2.
Rohit welcomed Rashid with a reverse-sweep and the conventional sweep fetching him two boundaries, followed by Suryakumar getting down on one knee to heave a slower ball from Jordan over long leg for six. Just before the ninth over began, rain began to pour heavily and forced everyone to get off the field for 75 minutes.
On resumption, Suryakumar began by sweeping Rashid for four, followed by Rohit launching Livingstone for a massive six over long-on. Rohit brought up his fifty in 36 balls by sweeping Curran for six, while Suryakumar lofted inside-out and pulled to take two boundaries off him as 19 runs came off the 13th over.
Post that, England bounced back as Rashid’s googly kept low and went past Rohit’s heave to castle him for 57. Archer’s return in the 16th over worked well when Suryakumar skied a back-of-the-hand slower ball to long-on. Pandya cut Archer for four, before hitting back-to-back sixes off Jordan.
But the pacer had the last laugh as Pandya smashed his slower delivery to long-off, followed by Shivam Dube nicking behind for a golden duck to make a double strike in the 18th over. Jadeja’s two boundaries off Archer, followed by Patel pulling Jordan for six ensured India crossed the 170-run mark.
Brief scores:
India 171/7 in 20 overs (Rohit Sharma 57, Suryakumar Yadav 47; Chris Jordan 3-37, Adil Rashid 1-25) against England