England opener Jos Buttler and Alex Hales’ stunning 170-run unbeaten partnership in the semi-final knocked India out of the T20 World Cup 2022 on Thursday.
The England opening duo silenced the dozens of thousands crowd present at the Adelaide Oval as they made a mockery of India’s total of 168, chasing it down in 16 overs to seal the Sunday’s final with Pakistan at the MCG.
For India it was Hardik Pandya who starred with the bat, cracking 63 runs off 33 balls after the likes of Rohit Sharma (27 off 28) and Virat Kohli (50 off 40) played anchoring knocks.
But, on a pitch where the ball skid on nicely in the second innings and the Indian bowlers couldn’t really produce any potent deliveries, Hales thumped 86* off 47 balls and Buttler whacked 80* off 49 balls to register as a thumping victory as England would have dreamt off.
Virat Kohli’s sister writes an emotional Instagram story
For the third time in his career, Virat Kohli finished as India’s highest scorer in a T20 World Cup – following on from 2014 and 2016 – the former skipper aggregated 296 runs in 6 innings, notching up 4 half-centuries.
Virat Kohli’s sister Bhawna Kohli Dhingra posted an emotional note on her Instagram story for Virat and for the team following India’s semi-final exit.
“You put your best out there, you emerged in your form like the phoenix. Supremely proud of you,” Bhawna wrote. “We support the team in times like this even more because we should back up our family when times are tough.”
India captain Rohit Sharma said that it was a disappointing loss. Surprisingly, Rohit said India batted well – despite the score looking below-par even before England openers started hitting boundaries – and Sharma reckoned it was the bowling that wasn’t “upto the mark”.
“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. All these guys have played enough to understand that,” Rohit said.
