Adelaide. Due to the explosive batting of captain Jos Butler (80 not out) and Alex Hales (86 not out), the second T20 World Cup was played on Thursday at the Adelaide Oval here. In the semi-final, England defeated India by 10 wickets to make it to the final. In reply to India’s 168, England’s team achieved the target by scoring 170 runs in 16 overs. Chasing the target, England openers Jos Buttler and Alex Hales made a scintillating start as they scored 63 runs in the powerplay without losing a wicket. After this, Hales completed his half-century in just 28 balls with the bat.
At the same time, both together blew up India’s bowling attack. Butler and Hales also took the team’s score beyond 100 in 10 overs. They now needed only 61 runs in 54 balls to win. Meanwhile, skipper Butler completed his half-century with a 36-ball six. The Indian bowlers looked helpless in front of these two batsmen as none of the bowlers seemed to be able to break the pair. Both the batsmen hit a flurry of fours and sixes, taking England’s score to 140 without losing a wicket in 13 overs. After this, in the 16th over, Buttler hit a six off Mohammed Shami to lead the team to the final by 10 wickets.
Skipper Buttler remained unbeaten on 86 off 47 balls with the help of 9 fours and 3 sixes while Hales remained unbeaten on 86 off 47 balls with the help of four fours and seven sixes. Now the English team will face Pakistan in the final on Sunday. India crashed out of the T20 World Cup after losing the semi-final match to England badly. Nothing went well for the Indian team except the innings of Hardik Pandya and Virat Kohli. While the batsmen craved to score runs, the bowlers were seen yearning for runs.
