The second semi-final of the ongoing T20 World Cup will be played between India and England at Guyana National Stadium.
Match preview:
India have the chance to avenge their 2022 T20 World Cup defeat where the defending champions England defeated them in a semi-final. England thrashed India by 10 wickets in Adelaide as the skipper Jos Buttler scored unbeaten 80 runs and Alex Hales scored 86 not out.
Although the match was remembered for the classical knock by the openers, English bowlers played their role too with Chris Jordan taking up 3 wickets. England later went on to lift-up the trophy by overpowering Pakistan in the final of the 2022 T20 World Cup.
This time around, England do have a fair chance to replicate the performance that they showed exactly 19 months ago. Jos Buttler is in red-hot form as he scored 191 runs in six innings and his new opening partner Phil Salt has been making waves too as he has accumulated 183 runs thus far in the tournament.
The English side are lucky to have the services of Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone who have bowled well so far in the tournament. And yes Adil Rashid, the veteran, the evergreen, spinner for the England side has been rattling the stumps of the best in the tournament so far.
Nevertheless, in the upcoming match England will have the option to bring back in Will Jacks who can bowl and can bring fire in the middle-order or maybe a debut for Tom Hartley who is in the squad as an additional main spinner.
Talking about India, their side is a well- balanced, explosive batting unit coupled with a varied bowling unit. Rohit Sharma’s knock against Australia will give him confidence to whack the potent bowling unit of English. Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya also find the form before an important match and SuryaKumar Yadav has been impressive from the word go.
Jasprit Bumrah has been the pick of the bowlers for India. And the likes of Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav have provided their side with a sound spin duo. But maybe India can bring Chahal in place of Jadeja in an all-important encounter.
Nevertheless, India have a great chance to end their trophy drought as they are yet to win a title since 2011. Whereas England have a chance to rewrite history by becoming the first side to defend a T20 World Cup title.
Pitch and weather report:
This game will be the sixth and last one at this venue. This pitch thus far has assisted spinners massively and assisted quicks as well (a bit though). The highest score on this pitch was posted by Afghanistan as they belted Uganda for 183 in 20 overs.
As for the weather, there are 70% chances of rain on Thursday. And there is no reserve day for this semi-final. But as per the Espncricinfo, India and England’ game will have 250 additional time in case of rain and if it’s a wash-out then India will proceed to the final.
Head-to-head record:
So far, both of the sides faced each other in 23 games and out of these 23 matches, India have won 12 whereas England stood victorious on 11 occasions.
Prediction:
Although England have a strong batting line-up but India is hot-favourite to win this encounter as they are in form and recently, they overpowered the tournament favourites – Australia.
Where to watch:
Pakistan – PTV Sports, Ten Sports, Myco (Live streaming), Tamasha app (Live streaming), Tapmad (live streaming)
India – Star Sports
England – SkySport Network
USA and Canada (Willow TV)
Caribbean – ESPN Caribbean
New Zealand & Australia – Sky Sports NZ, Prime Video
UK & Northern Ireland – Sky Sports
Sri Lanka – Maharaja TV
Other regions – SuperSport, Sirasa, CricLife, STARZPLAY
