An all-rounder show from Will Jacks set up England’s 24-run victory against Italy in the T20 World Cup 2026 at Eden Gardens, Kolkata.
His blistering fifty and bowling performance led England to enter the Super 8 stage. They become the 2nd team in Group C of the T20 World Cup 2026 points table.
After choosing to bat first, Phil Salt and Jos Buttler opened the innings for England while JJ Smuts opened the bowling attack.
Despite Grant Stewart brought breakthrough dismissing Jos Buttler for 3 runs, Jacob Bethell joined Salt to make up a decent partnership for the second wicket.
Ali Hasan bagged the wicket of Phil Salt for 28 runs while Jacob Bethell lost his wicket to Ben Manenti for 23 runs.
With a decent contributions from Tom Banton (30) and Sam Curran (25) before being dismissed by Kalugamage, Harry Brook scored 14 runs in his innings.
However Will Jacks add added an unbeaten 53 runs off 22 deliveries helping the side to run past 200.
By the end of 20 overs, England scored 202 runs losing 7 wickets. Grant Stewart and Crishan Kalugamage picked two wickets each while JJ Smuts, Ali Hasan and Ben Manenti bagged 1 wickets each.
A power-packed fifty and a vital wicket from Will Jacks were instrumental in England getting over the line against Italy 👏
He wins @aramco POTM 🏅 pic.twitter.com/F5nME2JPqd
— T20 World Cup (@T20WorldCup) February 16, 2026
Chasing 203 runs, Justin Mosca and Anthony Mosch opened the innings while Jofra Archer opened the bowling attack. Archer bagged the wickets of Anthony Mosca and JJ Smuts for duck in the first over.
With the dismissal of Harry Manenti for 12 runs, Justin Mosca and Ben Manenti made a decent partnership 0f 92 runs for the 4th wicket.
Manenti scored 60 runs for 25 deliveries before being dismissed by Will Jacks. Despite Grant Stewart adding runs to the scoreboard, Marcus, Gian Meade and Jaspreet Singh lost wickets quickly.
With Sam Curran picking the wicket of Grant Stewart, Italy’s hope lost as they got bundled out for 178 runs for 10 wickets.
Jamie Oveton and Sam Curran bagged three wickets each while Jofra Archer bagged two wickets. Will Jacks and Adil Rashid completed their spell with a wicket each.
Will Jacks was named as the Player of the Match. Speaking at the post match presentation, Jacks said, “We spoken about the last few games keeping our intent up. I think we’ve been a little bit static at times and we understood it was a very good surface and we know this is incredibly fast scoring ground.”
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