5 key highlights from India's dominating win over England in the semi-final

Kohli continues to fail

India are having a phenomenal T20 World Cup 2024 but the same can’t be said about Virat Kohli. The 35-year-old is having his worst T20WC, having scored just 75 runs across seven innings at an average of 10.71 and a strike rate of 100. 

He whipped Reece Topley for a six in the third over, and it looked like he would make an impact in the all-important encounter, but his stay was cut short in the same over. Kohli charged down the track and missed the ball completely, getting his leg stump knocked over for 9. 

Rohit-SKY’s stunning partnership

The Men in Blue lost Kohli and Rishabh Pant in the powerplay but that’s when Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav stepped up. The two batters from Mumbai put on 73 runs for the third wicket and helped India dominate the middle overs.

India captain Rohit slammed 57 off 39 deliveries, while SKY scored 47 off 36 balls. The two batted with enough aggressiveness on a two-paced Guyana surface.

Handy contributions from all-rounders

The two set batters perished before the start of the 17th over but Hardik Pandya (13-ball 23), Ravindra Jadeja (9-ball 17*) and Axar Patel (6-ball 10) played handy cameos to propel India to an above-par total.

Thanks to their premier all-rounders, India slammed 39 runs in the last three overs and got to 171/7 in their 20 overs.

England’s in-form openers depart early

It was certain that India had enough runs on the board but they still needed to get rid of Jos Buttler and Phil Salt as soon as possible.

Buttler (23 off 15) got off to a rapid start, hitting Arshdeep Singh for three fours in an over. Rohit brought Axar into the attack and Buttler top-edged one trying to reverse sweep. Jasprit Bumrah then knocked over Salt (5) in the next over to give India a perfect start.

Kuldeep, Axar close the game

The England seamers went at 10 runs per over, while their spinners operated at an economy of close to six, and India realised that was the way to go in the second innings. 

Kuldeep Yadav dismissed Harry Brook, Sam Curran and Chris Jordan, while Axar also finished with three wickets. England never looked alive in the run chase and were bundled out for 103.

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