India v England: T20 World Cup semi-final - live
England are without almost half of their best T20 XI – Bairstow, Malan, Archer, Wood and Topley. Let’s get the excuses in early, eh.
India are unchanged, which means Rishabh Pant is preferred to Dinesh Karthik. Look at that middle order, and gulp if you’re an England fan: Kohli, Suryakumar, Pant, Pandya.
Mark Wood has failed his fitness test and is replaced by Chris Jordan. That might be a blessing in disguise for England, although of course England would love Wood’s breathtaking pace. The only other change is Phil Salt for Dawid Malan. Salt is carded to bat at No3, though Eoin Morgan says he would open with him because of his ability to go hard from ball one in the Powerplay.
Well that’s interesting. England have chased fairly poorly in this tournament but it’s been their preferred approach over the past seven years.
The toss isn’t straightforward, not least because – absurd statgasm alert – all 11 T20Is on this ground have been won by the team that lost the toss. Psychologically, batting first important for England but the can come on nicely under the lights.
It’s a beautiful evening in Adelaide, so you can put the DLS sheet away. The pitch is used, though it’s nearly a week since the last game so the curator has had plenty of time to freshen it up. All the commentators think it looks like a belter.
Dawid Malan is definitely out with a groin injury, and Mark Wood is doubtful. Phil Salt and Chris Jordan – whose yorkers are a good option on a ground with such short square boundaries – are likely to come in.
At last. Since white-ball cricket was invented in 2015, England and India have been the best teams in the world. But in that time, they have danced around each other at major tournaments. They’ve met only once, never in the knockout stages. They were on course for a humdinger of a final in 2016 (World T20), 2017 (Champions Trophy) and especially 2019 (World Cup), but on each occasion one of them was beaten in the semi-finals.
They won’t meet in the final this year either, but we’ll happily make do with a blockbusting semi-final: India v England in Adelaide for the right to play – oh yes – a rampant Pakistan in the final on Sunday. It’s been a long time coming. But unlike many long-awaited rumbles – Mayweather v Pacquiao, Tyson v Lewis, Barlow v Baldwin – this will take place with both parties close to their peak.
Though England and India each have a bigger rival, their matches still have a unique intensity. (Don’t mention the M word, but keep an eye out for it if the game gets fractious.) There is also huge mutual respect, fostered mainly through the IPL. Both teams recognise in each other the thing that elite sportsfolk crave the most: a worthy adversary.
India go into today’s game as slight favourites. They’ve won their last four T20 series against England, which must count for something; they are No1 in the world rankings and have played better cricket than England in this tournament – even though, paradoxically, they were closer to the brink during their win over Bangladesh. There’s also a argument that India are under more pressure to win – firstly because they haven’t won a global tournament since 2013, secondly because they are India, thirdly because they are India.
England, as an endearingly candid Moeen Ali said the other day, would like another white-ball trophy to confirm their greatness. They have a history of raising their game for the toughest opponents, certainly at World Cups, and a few key players – Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Mark Wood (though he is an injury doubt), Sam Curran – are bang in form. If you are into the whole positive-accentuation thing, those who aren’t in form are due.
Buttler’s new-ball contest with Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who has caused him all sorts of trouble in the recent past*, could be vital. England also need plans for Virat Kohli, who averages 123 in this tournament and a scandalous 84 at all T20 World Cups – and for Suryakumar Yadav, the freest spirit in world cricket.
Suryakumar should love the short square boundaries at the Adelaide Oval. England could do with – here comes the cheesy pun –a bit of blue-SKY thinking, because nobody seems to have a clue how to bowl to him. It might just be an extended purple patch, but at the moment it feels like he is redefining middle-order batting in this format. He has a T20I strike rate of 180, and abracadabrad 117 from 55 balls against England in the summer.
The good news for England is that they won that game. The bad news is that it was a dead rubber because they’d already lost the series. In short, nobody knows anything, but it’s England v India in a World Cup knockout game for the first time since Graham Gooch’s sweepathon in 1987**. If your mouth isn’t watering, you should seek urgent medical advice.
* In T20Is Buttler has scored 30 from 32 balls off Bhuvneshwar – and been dismissed five times
** The infamous group game in 1999 was effectively a knockout, though that only became apparent at the start of the second innings
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