England batters bat India out of World Cup, with 4 overs to spare

It was deja vu 2021 for India instead of deja vu 2007. Last year Pakistan defeated India by 10 wickets and today (November 10) England (170/0) thrashed India (168/6) by 10 wickets at Adelaide, Australia, to book their place for the summit clash with Pakistan at the MCG on Sunday.

England chased down the target in just 16 overs as Jos Buttler hit a huge six of Mohammed Shami. Buttler scored 80 off 49 balls with nine 4s and three 6s. Alex Hales made 86 off 47 deliveries with four boundaries and seven 6s.

Rude surprise: When Haridk Pandya was hitting those free-flowing shots in the last overs of the first innings, very few Indian fans would have thought that a very rude surprise is waiting for them in the second innings.

English openers Hales and skipper Buttler showed their Indian counterparts how to bat in the T20Is, especially in the powerplays and especially when playing on a wicket that looked like a batting paradise.

Hales and Buttler show: Hales hit a brilliant six off Pandya towards deep mid-wicket to complete 100-run opening stand between him and Buttler in just 10.1 overs. The England openers had decided from the first ball that they are not going to give much respect to the Indian bowlers and scored 13 runs off Bhuvneshwar Kumar's first over. And from there on, it kept getting better and better for the English team. There was not an over till the 9th one that the England openers had not scored a boundary.

Ineffective Indian bowling: Rohit Sharma tried all his options but none of the bowlers were able to get a breakthrough. After the 10th over it almost looked like that India had given up on any hopes of a comeback. And it gave both the batters, especially Hales an invitation to go for the jugular.

Indian innings: Earlier, batting first, Pandya's 33-ball 63 and Virat Kolhi's solid 50 off 40 balls took India to 168/6 in 20 overs.

• After 10 overs, even 150 was looking tough for India. But Pandya's blitz in the death over took India to a strong total. Rohit's 27-ball 28 showed some promise, so did Suryakumar Yadav's 10-ball 14 but they couldn't stay for a long time at the crease.
• For England, Chris Jordan picked up 3 wickets but he gave away 43 runs in 4 overs. Adil Rashid and Chris Woakes picked up one wicket each. In the first 10 overs India failed scored freely and could score only 62 runs on a wicket that had so much for the batters