India escapes Beth ‘hell’

Mumbai: Sanju Samson’s sublime fifty and Jasprit Bumrah’s spell touched with unearthly genius on a batting beauty helped India secure a seven-run win over gallant England, as the defending champions powered to the T20 World Cup final here on Thursday.

Sanju Samson (89 off 42) overcame the Jofra Archer challenge through a slice of luck for his second successive fifty, firing India to a mammoth 253 for seven, the highest total in a knock-out game in the tournament’s history.

It was an above-par total at Wankhede but Jacob Bethell (105 off 48) led England’s fightback with a sublime hundred after they lost three wickets in the powerplay for 68 runs.

In the end, critical contribution from Bumrah (1/33 in 4 overs) in the death overs allowed India to stop England at 246/7 in 20 overs.

India will now face New Zealand in the title clash in Ahmedabad on Sunday.

Tom Banton (17 off 5) was the fourth wicket to fall but sixes kept coming, propelling England to 119 for four at the halfway stage, equalling India’s mark after 10 overs.

Varun Chakaravarthy was again the weakest link in the attack as he failed to find the right length on an unforgiving surface to leak 64 runs in his four overs.

Bumrah had got rid of the dangerous Harry Brook in the power play with slow cutter, and Axar Patel took a sensational backward running catch from the cover region.

With Will Jacks (35 off 20) and Bethell on the offensive in the middle overs, it was another brilliant work of fielding from Axar in the deep that saw the former’s back, ending a 77-run stand off 39 balls. Curan joined Bethell in the middle and the equation was brought down to a gettable 45 off the last three overs, forcing Suryakumar Yadav to bring Bumrah for one final time in the game.

The Indian wizard delivered once again by conceding only six runs. With both Arshdeep and Bumrah not available, Shivam Dube was called upon to defend 30 in the final over.

England’s hopes ended with a heartbreaking run out of Bethell, who played a memorable innings.

After single-handedly taking India to the semifinals, a supremely confident Samson (89) bludgeoned the England bowling attack including Archer, who had dominated his battle against the Indian opener in last year’s bilateral series.

Having lost the toss at a ground with short boundaries, India had to put up a big total and Samson helped them do that after being dropped by Harry Brook on 15 off Archer in the third over.

Brief scores:

India: 253 for seven in 20 overs (Sanju Samson 89, Shivam Dube 43, Ishan Kishan 39; Will Jacks 2/40, Adil Rashid 2/41) beat England: 246 for 7 in 20 overs (Jacob Bethell 105; Jasprit Bumrah 1/33, Hardik Pandya 2/38) by seven runs.