NEW DELHI: 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.

India managed 46 runs from the six power-play overs and it cost them the wickets of Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant.

Rohit began with a couple of streaky shots but soon grew in confidence before rain stopped play with India 65-2 in eight overs.

Once play resumed more than an hour later, Rohit reached his 36-ball. Adil Rashid bowled Rohit and Jofra Archer denied Suryakumar a fifty to temporarily peg back India.

Jordan (3-37) dismissed Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube with successive deliveries but India still managed to post a competitive total.

England began briskly but were reeling at 49-5 after a top-order meltdown triggered by Axar (3-23).

The left-arm spinner dismissed Buttler (23) with his first ball and Jonny Bairstow in his next over.

Player-of-the-match Axar returned to dismiss Moeen Ali stumped before fellow spinner Kuldeep (3-19) twisted the knife on a slow pitch where the ball occasionally kept low.

The left-arm wrist spinner trapped both Sam Curran and Jordan and clean-bowled Harry Brook (25) to put India firmly in charge.

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2024