Usman Qadir, the son of legendary Pakistan leg-spinner Late Abdul Qadir, and himself a member of the Babar Azam-led side that has entered the final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, said on the eve of his team’s semifinal against New Zealand that everybody wanted an India-Pakistan final. “Even the ICC wants an India-Pakistan final,” he said in jest while accepting the medallion that marked the induction of his father into the ICC Hall of Fame in Sydney.
Any Indian and a Pakistan fan all over the world wanted a repeat of October 23 India-Pakistan clash at the biggest stadium in Australia, Melbourne Cricket Ground.
But that was not to be. England captain Jos Buttler led from the front and ensured that it was not an India-Pakistan final. “Yeah, I think certainly there were a few people wanting that final, of course, but certainly for us, we're desperate to get there. We wanted to – like I said, spoil that party, and I'm sure there's – having seen the first game of the tournament between India and Pakistan, there's a lot of people that would have loved to have seen another edition of that, but they'll have to wait for another time."
Only a little over 24 hours earlier, on the eve of the semifinal, Buttler had said: “We certainly don't want to see an India-Pakistan final, so we'll be trying all we can do to make sure that doesn't happen.”
Make sure, Buttler did at the Adelaide Oval on Thursday by eliminating strong favourites India by a whopping 10 wickets. It was a day when nothing went right for India. Right from the toss.
And, one bad day does not make the Indian team players a bunch of hopeless players. Having struggled to put runs on the board in the Power Play against the England bowlers, four of whom were deployed, India lost the plot in this set of six overs when the field restrictions were in vogue. India posted only 38 for one whereas England, rather, Buttler and his opening partner Alex Hales, raced to 63 without loss.
There was no stopping England as they raced to 100 in the 11th over as against India, who got there in the 15th. And, when England met the target in the last ball of the 16th over, England won handsomely to enter the final to take on Pakistan for the crown. Whoever wins, England or Pakistan, will win the title for the second time to join the West Indies, who have won the T20 World Cup twice (in 2012 and 2016).
The Indian bowlers were not up to the mark against England that they failed to take even one wicket. Blame it on the inability on the part of Indian bowlers to swing the ball and take wickets. Blame it on Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Md Shami, young Arshdeep Singh and Hardik Pandya. Or for that matter spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and Axar Patel.
They all faced the wrath of Buttler and Alex Hales that their bowling averages went a shade worse with their inability to pick up even a single wicket. The 10-wicket defeat is a humiliation that will take a long time to heal.
Looking back at the tournament, India did well to top Group 2 in Super 12, winning against Pakistan in the first encounter in Melbourne off the last ball, The Netherlands in Sydney, Bangladesh in Adelaide and Zimbabwe in Melbourne, while losing to South Africa in Perth.
It was at this very venue from which they were eliminated from the tournament, the Adelaide Oval, that India faced a scare. Litton Das and Najmul Hussain Shanto raced to 60 for no loss in the Power Play and were sitting pretty at 66 for no loss when rain intervened. When Das went after the Indian medium-pace trio of Kumar, Md Shami and Arshdeep Singh, the Indians had nowhere to run for cover.
It required a brilliant throw from KL Rahul, a pick-up and throw directly into the stumps to run out Das to bring India back in the game.
While Rahul found form in this game against Bangladesh, he posted his second half-century in succession against Zimbabwe. But, Rahul has not performed to his true potential until the Bangladesh game, falling cheaply against Pakistan (4), The Netherlands (9) and South Africa (9). But, in the crucial semifinal game, he chased a widish delivery that rose sharply and he was dragged into playing the shot and ended up edging Chris Woakes to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler for 5.
Skipper Rohit Sharma has not really fired in this World Cup. Barring the match against The Netherlands in which he scored 53, Rohit had scores of 5, 15, 2, 15 and 27, often falling prey to the short ball and pulling into the square leg or long leg hands. The pressure of his opening partner Rahul not scoring freely, perhaps, caught on to Rohit and in the process of stepping the accelerator, had to play for the shots and fell to catches.
It was no different in the semifinal, Rohit hitting to mid-wicket without connecting the ball well. The otherwise formidable Rohit and Rahul opening partnership that averages 46.26 with five hundreds and 15 fifties, did not show one fifty-plus stand. Their highest was 27 against Zimbabwe whereas the other stands were 7, 11, 23, 11 and 9. This was something that the Indian team would have certainly preferred to have been better.
The lone bright spot in the Indian team was Virat Kohli, scoring four fifties in six innings, batting like a man possessed and ensuring that he stayed till the end and took India to a position of strength. While the knock against Pakistan will go down in history as one of the best, it was just that his 50 went in vain in the most crucial match of the tournament.
Among bowlers, a lot was expected from left-arm spinner Axar Patel even though the conditions in Australia were not spin-friendly. While he may not have taken the wickets, he also did not stop the runs. He went for 8.62 runs per over, the most expensive among Indian bowlers and took only three wickets in all.
A lot was expected from the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar, especially in the conditions where there is bounce and swing largely due to the wind. Bhuvneshwar had only four wickets to show and he may have been the most economical among Indian bowlers at 6.16. But he was found wanting in the semifinal.
Dinesh Karthik, given four matches in the tournament, failed to do the role of the finisher whereas Rishabh Pant, given two matches, did not fire when given the opportunity.
Head coach Rahul Dravid was in a pensive mood after the loss to England. “We'll reflect on it. It's tough to reflect on things so close to the result, but yeah, I think overall we ran a pretty good campaign. Over the last year, we've played some good T20 cricket. Even in this tournament, I think we've had our moments. There's been some real individual quality from a lot of our players, showing some real good skills. But on the day we were just not good enough here."
“I’m sure that when you lose in a semifinal, yes, I know it's disappointing, but yeah, I'm sure there are things we can look back on and reflect on and see that we've improved and we can take forward and move forward as we build for the next World Cup,” he noted.
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