England muscled past India to meet Pakistan in the World Cup final at the MCG on Sunday, as two seasoned members of the Big Bash League’s foreign contingent handed out an Adelaide Oval lesson to players banned from overseas Twenty20 competitions.
Alex Hales, the BBL’s highest-ever overseas run scorer, formed a commanding stand with his captain Jos Buttler, also an accomplished BBL performer, to deliver England a victory as memorable as it was comprehensive, by 10 wickets with four overs to spare in front of 40,094 spectators.
Buttler sealed the match with the 10th sixth between the pair, setting off raucous celebrations in the England dugout.
England’s captain Jos Buttler accompanied Alex Hales in a masterly chase.Credit:Getty Images
Another BBL alumni, the former Adelaide Strikers spin bowler Adil Rashid, delivered an artful spell that included the pivotal wicket of India’s destructive Suryakumar Yadav. Only one England player, Moeen Ali, hasn’t played in the BBL.
England’s progress to a first T20 World Cup final since 2016 – they also won the tournament in the Caribbean in 2010 – is also a colourful feather in the caps of the coach Matthew Mott, and his fellow Australian assistants Mike Hussey and David Saker.
A little over two years ago, Mott had coached Australia’s women to triumph over India in the World Cup final at the MCG, watched by more than 86,000 adoring fans. This time, his side overcame the pre-match withdrawals of Mark Wood and Dawid Malan to return to that same arena and deprive India of another face-off with Pakistan.
India, despite a wealth of talent and unrivalled power to draw supporters into the grounds and onto broadcast screens, remains yet to add to the T20 World Cup trophy lifted by MS Dhoni at the event’s very first edition in 2007.
Since then, India has been the only cricket nation to prohibit its men from playing in overseas T20 leagues, instead keeping them for the exclusive confines of the IPL. That has helped India leap ever further ahead as cricket’s financial powerhouse, but this night it was easy to wonder whether some more overseas experience might have been handy.
Sent in to bat on a “used” but evenly grassed pitch, India’s openers found there was plenty of new ball life for Chris Woakes in particular. KL Rahul was unable to ride the bounce, edging behind, and neither Virat Kohli nor Rohit Sharma were entirely at ease.
Kohli broke the spell with one glorious, Damien Martynesque six over cover, but after Rohit skied Chris Jordan and the formidable Yadav fell victim to a masterly piece of wrist spin by Rashid on the ground once grace by Clarrie Grimmett, India were stuck.
Chris Jordan substituted admirably for the injured Mark Wood.Credit:Getty
Though Kohli carried on to a typically well-modulated 50, acceleration was needed from somewhere. It was to be England’s misfortune that Pandya, out of rhythm all tournament, found his range at the very last.
Spin and pace, left-arm and right, full and short, wide and straight, it pretty much all disappeared in a hectic last seven overs from which Pandya and India hammered all of 88 runs. Curran, perhaps England’s bowler of the tournament, went for more than 40 for the first time in his T20 international career.
But just as Pandya’s innings was pushing the England target beyond 165 – the number Buttler had quoted as a par score in Adelaide – it was also indicating that batting got easier as dusk moved into night. Certainly that had been Australia’s experience when Afghanistan fell narrowly short of a win when chasing last Friday.
If Bhuvneshwar Kumar had previously possessed a handy record against Buttler (80, 49 balls), he was unable to repeat the trick, as the captain set the tone for the chase with a trio of crisp boundaries in the opening over.
His swift start allowed Hales (86, 47 balls) a little more time to find his rhythm, and when he did, India’s bowlers found themselves with virtually nowhere to hide. Hales launched at least one boundary in every over between the fifth and the eighth, whittling India’s target down under 100.
When Buttler scooped Pandya over the head of Rishabh Pant in the ninth over, Mohammed Shami attempted to flick to a teammate for a quick return, only to miss the target and allow England’s openers to amble for an all-run four.
The rest was a pageant for England and a sobering affair for India, after the air had been thick with the cheers of their supporters for much of the evening. It was all summed up when, with 19 needed, Yadav not only dropped Buttler’s skier but knocked it beyond Kohli’s reach and to the rope.
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