India demolish England and roar back to full form

Skill, determination and purpose - Sanju Samson batted with all the three again in the semifinal against England in the 2026 T20 World Cup at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai. England probably did not assess the conditions accurately as they sent India to bat after winning the toss- but this Indian team is such a big force that it is virtually impossible to stop when in full flow. The match up of Jofra Archer with Sanju Samson was picking up steam when a loose, short ball down the leg side was pulled over fine leg by Sanju. After Abhishek Sharma holed out to the sole fielder patrolling the long on- deep midwicket boundary as his lean patch continued, Ishan Kishan, hungry for runs after a string of poor performances post the Pakistan game, joined Sanju.

The skipper Harry Brook dropped a straightforward catch at mid-on off Archer and Sanju got a reprieve - a very costly one for England and such misses often show teams the exit as it happened to England yesterday. Sanju cut, drove, pulled and even squeezed the ball through the backward point and short third man fielders as he marched to another half century of 26 balls. At the other end, Ishan Kishan started opening up and punished Liam Dawson & Sam Curran severely. Adil Rashid had delivered a sedate over in between and was strangely taken out of the attack. As the assault continued, the Englishmen were invariably bowling into the wicket and right in the slot for both Kishan and Sanju. Attempts to bowl wide were either negotiated safely or resulted in the umpire forced to outstretch his arms.

Adil Rashid, brought back, struck in the tenth over as Ishan Kishan stepped out and reached out to an angled delivery, Shivam Dube was sent ahead of others to possibly sweep away Rashid's threat. The score read 119-2 after the tenth over, Rashid being the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2-0-13-1 and Samson batting on 67 from 34. The first ball of the second half was deposited over the boundary by Sanju making the intentions clear. Rashid, continuing, was greeted by Dube with a heave over deep mid wicket. Sanju showed admirable restraint while Dube repeated the stroke three balls later - England had no place to run for cover and turned to their spearhead Jofra Archer who began with fast, back of a length deliveries, was taken to the cleaners by Samson and leaked 15 runs.

The plan of bowling wide finally worked for England and Will Jacks as Samson's selfless shot landed safely in Phil Salt's hands After fifteen overs, India moved to 177-3 and looked all set for the final assault with Hardik Pandya still to bat. 217-5 in 18 overs became 237-6 after 19 and India finally finished with a mammoth total of 253 as Shivam Dube, Haridk Pandya and Tilak Verma forced the pace with brisk cameos.

India must have been aware of the perils of bowling second on a flat Mumbai pitch against a strong side like England in a world cup semifinal. Such matches are won by seizing certain smaller moments and India did so almost every time. Axar Patel completed a very good running catch to dismiss Phil Salt early on and later ran in & popped the ball to Dube from the boundary to break the partnership between Will Jacks and Jacob Bethell. Though England were always behind, the stand was threatening. As always, Bumrah delivered when it mattered and Arshdeep's last over was brilliantly bowled. Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel supported them with some tight bowling. The only cause of worry for India would be Varun Chakravarty's form. Kuldeep coming in for Varun against New Zealand would augur well for India on Sunday at Ahmedabad. Though Abhishek Sharma has still not struck gold, India will be hoping for a repeat of the previous world cup final when "The King" stepped up under pressure.