England chased down 170 runs without losing a wicket and stormed into the final.
After being asked to bat first as England captain Jos Buttler won the toss, India managed to put 168/6 in 20 overs mostly due to Hardik Pandya’s amazing 63 in 33 balls, while Virat Kohli slammed his 4th fifty in this tournament and went past the 4000-run mark in T20Is as well, becoming the first men’s batter to achieve this feat.
In reply, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler just hit their way to records as Indian bowling was made to look pedestrian-like, leaking a boundary almost every over. They didn’t look threatening at all as the England openers raced to a century partnership inside 11 overs.
Buttler made 80* in 49 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes, while Hales made 86* in 47 balls with 7 sixes and 4 fours to their names as England made 170 without losing a wicket in 16 overs as the Indian bowling attack was mocked to the point of embarrassment.
Reacting to the loss, Rohit Sharma shared his thoughts on what went wrong for India and it was the bowling that was the main topic of his answers during the post-match presentation.
He said: “Pretty disappointed how it turned up today. We batted well at the backend to get that score. We were not upto the mark with the ball, we couldn't turn up today. It's all about handling the pressure in knockout games. You can't teach anyone to handle pressure. All these guys have played enough to understand that. These guys have played under pressure in IPL games, it's all about keeping calm. We were nervy to start with, but you got to give credit to their openers, they played really well. I thought it swung a bit in the first over, but not from the right areas.
We know the runs are scored square off the wicket, we were aware about it. When we won the first game, it showed a lot of character. The game against Bangladesh, it was a tricky one. I thought it was difficult defending 85 runs in 9 overs, but we held our nerve and executed our plans. Couldn't do that today, and when you don't execute your plans, you are in trouble.”
England and Pakistan will clash in the final at MCG on November 13.
(Cricbuzz/Star Sports inputs)