When England lost their first group game against West Indies in the World T20; one thought they had missed a great opportunity to set the pace early in their bid to qualify for the semi-finals. It was a tough group after all, comprising of defending champions Sri Lanka, perennial strongholds South Africa and slippery banana-skin Afghanistan.
No T20 game is an easy proposition for any English side anyways and the fixture against Afghanistan was a perfect recipe of another embarrassing defeat on the global stage.
To be fair though, the Lankans looked below par coming into the tournament. A young squad bereft of inspiration led by a reluctant skipper in Angelo Mathews, the defence of the title looked very much beyond them. Having said that, they were still considered a handful in Asian conditions.
South Africa had thrashed England in two home T20I’s coming into the tournament, and as such, were very much the big brothers in this format. As a result of which you might have thought that England’s best chance had come and gone against West Indies, after having put up 182 on the board, they had to get Chris Gayle early to put pressure on a capable but brittle line-up.
They failed at the first hurdle and Gayle took the game away in his usual style. In a group where qualification called for discipline and consistency, there was surely only one place for either England or WI to squeeze into, and the latter looked firmly on the front foot.
Two days later, they were up against South Africa with survival on the line and their bowlers having taken a round of bashing, Joe Root produced one of the innings of the tournament. An innings filled with grace, rarely found in T20 cricket, Root brought England to the doorstep of an emphatic, life-saving victory from where even England’s wobbly lower middle-order found it difficult to throw the game away.
Moeen Ali pulled them over the line before he went on to repeat the feat in a much difficult scenario, this time against the Afghans. Riding on a false bravado, England found themselves down to the bare bones at 57/6, before Ali somehow stitched the innings together with a solid but characteristically languid 41. Left with a middling target, Afghanistan completely capitulated in the chase, leaving England’s campaign on track.
West Indies had meanwhile killed off Sri Lanka, without even needing the services of Gayle at the top of the order, and went on to restrict South Africa too, for a measly 122, to not just gate crash into the final four, but also seal their place at the top of the group.
That they lost their final game against Afghanistan was not just credit to the Afghans for their continuous improvement, but as much a reassurance of the fact that this is the West Indies we all know.
England, on the other hand, faced the Lankans in their final game and rode on Jos Buttler’s rollicking 66 to post 171 on a difficult pitch. They then had Sri Lanka down to 15/4 and looked like bossing a game for the first time in the tournament, en route to their path into the final four.
It took a valiant 73 from Mathews to deny that satisfaction and for a brief while, his fireworks on a burning deck threatened to take the game away. Left with too much to do in the final over and facing the controlled aggression of Ben Stokes, the hamstrung skipper finally fell short and Eoin Morgan’s troops entered the semi-finals at the expense of Sri Lanka & South Africa.
The two sides that most fans would have predicted to struggle in Group 1, thus find themselves still alive in the tournament, at the expense of two other teams who should have at least made it this far, if not gone all the way. West Indies arguably are a team of star T20 players but their collective form has been scratchy and they always seem to carry the burden of off-field issues with the Board.
They now take on India in the semi-finals in what should be a cracking contest. In the context of the tournament, West Indies are the ones going into the game in better form but India’s survival and journey so far has been a surreal story in itself.
England will face the tournament’s form side, New Zealand in the other semi-final at Delhi. Like the World Cup last year, New Zealand have been early to set the pace here, riding on the back of the inventive Kane Williamson and a management whose reading of the pitches has been immaculate.
For Morgan, Ali, Root and Buttler though, this game will provide an opportunity to avenge the ego-bruising loss they suffered at the hands of Brendon McCullum’s ruthless Kiwis at the World Cup in Wellington.
The turnaround by England from then has been laudable, and for this young side, beating New Zealand will bring a satisfaction beyond compare.
