Former England Captain Dismisses 'Narrative' That 'Surface, Venue' Was Geared Towards India Reaching the T20 World Cup Final

English pundits and former players had questioned the ‘advantages’ the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had got from the International Cricket Council (ICC) before a dominant India ended England’s title defence by handing them a 68-run thumping in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup on Thursday and secure their place in the final against South Africa.

Put into bat in the rain-hit match, India posted a strong 171-7 with skipper Rohit Sharma (57) and Suryakumar Yadav (47) scoring bulk of the runs on a slow track at the Providence Stadium in Guyana.

The 2007 champions then returned to bundle out England for 103 inside 17 overs with their spin duo of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav wreaking havoc with the turning ball.

Former cricketer-turned-expert Michael Vaughan and David Lloyd had questioned India getting a pre-decided semi-final venue and playing all their games in the morning. Former England captain Nasser Hussain though does not agree.

“The narrative will be that everything on Thursday was geared towards India reaching the T20 World Cup final — the surface, the venue, all seemed to be in their favour. But if you look at things in greater detail, they came into this semi-final against England having just beaten 50-over world champions Australia on a bouncier, good pitch in St Lucia, and reverted to a lower, slower pitch and won comfortably. Fair play to them for the way they played and it feels right that India and South Africa, the two unbeaten sides in the tournament, go head to head in Barbados on Saturday,” Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail.

“India’s score was only slightly higher than the 168 they put up in the 2022 semi-final they lost to England at the Adelaide Oval, but the difference in conditions to here in Guyana was chalk and cheese. A combination of seamers keeping the ball low and spinners turning it with no bounce made their 171 for seven a pretty decent score to defend, and Rohit Sharma showed his class by taking one of his favourite shots — the pull — out of the equation to make another half-century,” Hussain added.

(With inputs from Agencies)

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