Mumbai : With Sanju Samson’s stormy half-century, India scored 253 runs for seven wickets against England in the semi-finals of the ICC T20 World Cup here on Thursday, which is the highest score of knockout matches in the history of the tournament. Samson, the hero of India’s victory in the last match against West Indies, took advantage of the lifeline he got at the score of 15 runs and scored 89 runs in 42 balls with seven sixes and eight fours. Apart from scoring 97 runs in 45 balls for the second wicket with Ishan Kishan (39) and 43 runs in 22 balls for the third wicket with Shivam Dubey (43 runs, 25 balls, four sixes, one four). Made a partnership.
Hardik Pandya (27 runs in 12 balls, three fours, two sixes) and Tilak Verma (21 runs in seven balls, three sixes) batted brilliantly in the end and took India’s score beyond 250 runs. There were 19 sixes in India’s innings, which is the best performance of the team. For England, spinners Will Jacques (two wickets for 40 runs) and Adil Rashid (two wickets for 41 runs) took two wickets each. Fast bowlers Joffra Archer and Sam Curran conceded 61 and 53 runs respectively. Archer got one wicket while Curran’s bag remained empty. Electing to bat after losing the toss, India made a good start by scoring 67 runs for one wicket in the power play due to Samson’s stormy innings. Samson showed his flair with fours and sixes on consecutive balls of Jofra Archer. In the next over of this fast bowler, captain Harry Brook took an easy catch of Samson at mid-on and this batsman hit two fours and a six in the over. Abhishek Sharma (09) also hit two fours on spinner Will Jacques but then waved his ball in the air and gave an easy catch to Phil Salt at deep midwicket. Ishan Kishan also hit two consecutive fours off Jamie Overton while Samson did the same to Sam Curran. Samson welcomed leg spinner Adil Rashid with a four and then hit a six off left-arm spinner Liam Dawson to complete his second consecutive half-century in just 26 balls. Ishan also hit a six on Dawson. Samson and Ishan also hit sixes on Curran in the next over, completing India’s century in the ninth over.
However, after this, Ishan, while trying to play a big shot on Rashid, waved the ball in the air and got caught by Jacques at long off. He hit four fours and two sixes in his 18-ball innings. Shivam Dubey hit two sixes on Rashid as soon as he came. Samson also hit two sixes on Archer but after that he was caught by Salt on the ball of Jacques. Captain Suryakumar Yadav (11) hit a six on Rashid but was stumped on the next ball. Hardik Pandya took India’s score beyond 200 runs in the 17th over with three fours off Overton. Dubey hit a six on Curran but after that due to a misunderstanding with Pandya, he was run out. Tilak Verma (21) hit three sixes on Archer in the 19th over but was then bowled. Pandya hit two sixes in the last over and took the team’s score beyond 250 runs but was then run out.
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