Adelaide: Twenty four hours ago Jos Buttler said that he would play an aggressive game and not let India-Pakistan encounter become the final match. Indirectly he meant that England would defeat India on Thursday. And his words became prophetic. England scored 170 for the loss of no wicket in 16 overs. The winning stroke was a six by the English captain and he remained unconquered on 80 (49 balls, 9×4, 3×6).
At the other end Alex Hales remained unbeaten on 86 runs (47 balls, 4x4, 7x6). India suffered a shameful defeat by 10 wickets. After this annihilation the BCCI secretary Jay Shah will form an inquiry committee to know the reason for the team's failure.
There are a number of factors that can be found in all the areas that the media has been shedding light on. Despite this, Chetan Sharma will remain the chairman of the selection committee. Vikram Rathore will remain as a batting coach.
Three days ago, Sunil Gavaskar said that India cannot win if Suryakumar Yadav does not score runs. Not for nothing why is he called the 'Voice of Indian Cricket'! A day ago he gave this message to Rohit Sharma that these days 135 crore people should not suffer. Now that Indian people have to live with this humiliation forever.
Before the start of the game, the Adelaide Oval authorities officially announced that those who have won the toss have lost the last 11 matches at the venue. So the moment Jos Buttler won the toss, the spontaneous jubilation of the Indian fans seemed to indicate that India had reached the final.
In fact, what happened was quite opposite. That is why it is said that the statistics of the past cannot always guide one in the right direction to the future.
In other words, T20 World Cup remained elusive for India this time. Following MS Dhoni taking his team to victory in 2007 championship, failure has been dogging India in this format. The trophy could not be won during Ravi Shastri's tenure and even during Rahul Dravid's tenure. The wheel of fortune did not turn for India.
For now, there will be more waiting. It was said that Bhuvneshwar Kumar's bowling would cause much discomfiture to England's captain Jos Buttler. Starting with a wide, Kumar gave away 25 runs in his first two overs. Like Dinesh Karthik, this time he will also have to pull the beard!
The current team management did not want to realise that Rohit Sharma has passed his prime long ago. The Buttler-Hales pair made a fool of India's bowling department. Look at the bowlers' stats in the scorecard to understand the extent of abuse.
After this, will Rohit Sharma, Rahul Dravid talk about 'process'. Rohit will still say that he is proud of this team as it reached the semi-finals. Why KL Rahul (5), Rohit Sharma (27) cannot be called a failure. The two could not take the pressure of the knock out stage again. But they have to say that they are very good cricketers indeed! They cannot win the trophy even with 365 days of 'process'.
India was at 121 for 3 in 17 overs. Since then it was understood that the day was not for the team. Virat Kohli once again proved that the phase of loss of form is over for the time being by playing a 40-ball 50-run innings.
In between, Suryakumar, who is famous for 360 degrees, returned with 14 runs off 10 balls with a catch by Phil Salt at deep point. Just one ball earlier, the bowler Adil Rashid had made Salt stand at that spot. Still Surya could not control himself. At that time, Hardik was flooding the field with fours and sixes. He scored 63 runs off 33 balls and became a hit wicket for Jordan. Rishabh Pant came in, but was again run out for 6 runs.
In the end, 168 runs were accumulated by India. But this run was not enough at the Adelaide Oval. Hopefully, the Indian camp will not blame the 22 yards in the middle.
There was a wonderful coexistence of dead and green grass on the wicket today. The gallery too saw a co-existence among India, England and Pakistan fans.
I saw a placard in the gallery reading: 'Come to the final, we will fight there. What happened in the 50-over World Cup in '92 is still happening." Imran Khan's Pakistan was eventually crowned the champion after losing to India in the group league. That year England faced defeat at the hands of Pakistan in the final in Melbourne.
Will the English be able to avenge the 30-year-old loss?
In the last 5 overs, 79 runs were added to the Indian total. With this, Virat crossed the boundary of 4,000 runs in T20 cricket. His personal score rose from 39 to 43 as he sent Liam Livingstone to the cover boundary. He entered the 4,000 run club at that moment.
Virat is not comfortable against left-arm pace bowlers. Knowing this, Buttler brought in Sam Curren in the third over. He was beaten twice but he could not be stopped.
Buttler placed another fielder behind the bowler in front of the side screen. Virat and Hardik were trying to play lofted shot over the bowler's head on their way to a 61-run partnership. Buttler made this change to stop the run flow.
With good bowling, fielding and lastly impeccable batting, England sailed into the final. I don't know how the Buttler-Hales pair will taste success in front of Shaheen Shah Afridi. Nevertheless both the teams do fancy their chances to lift the trophy.
The media has been talking about India's bowling weakness since the beginning. But the heads in the 'process' were not willing to accept it at all.
Rohit Sharma has openly said that the words of those who cannot come inside the field are of no importance to them. Rahul Dravid's words also had such a tone.