[ad_1]
Pakistan, India, and the neutral cricket world are just one game away from being treated to the match of a lifetime.
The only problem is England stands in the way.
On Thursday night, India and England face off at the Adelaide Oval (7pm AEDT) for the right to play Pakistan in Sunday’s T20 World Cup final at the MCG.
Should India win, it will mean a match between two bitter rivals that will be watched by over a billion people.
India is 4-136 after 18 overs.
It’s crunch time at the T20 World Cup and you can catch every match live and ad-free in play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
MATCH CENTRE: India vs England, live scoreboard, video, stats
PREVIEW: Veteran’s cruel World Cup twist… and the call that could define cricket giant’s decade of pain
FINAL: Radical plan to save T20 World Cup final from being ruined by Melbourne’s weather
England won the toss in Adelaide and elected to bowl first.
The decision pleased India captain Rohit Sharma who said he would have elected to bat first anyway.
Nonetheless, struggling opener KL Rahul (5 off 5) departed in the second over, caught behind off chris Woakes.
Standing on the sidelines, Nasser Hussain said the wicket appeared to have made the strong Indian support “nervy”.
“England have managed to quieten the crowd which is half the battle,” he said in commentary.
Rohit Sharma never found his rhythm, making 27 off 28 balls before skying one off Chris Jordan at the end of the ninth over.
Adil Rashid bowled four brilliant overs, taking 1-20 including the major wicket of Suryakumar Yadav, who holed out in the deep for 14 off 10.
Virat Kohli led the charge in reaching 50 off 39 balls, but the very next delivery he sliced a wide yorker from Chris Jordan straight to short third man. It was Kohli’s fourth half-century of the tournament as he continued his love affair with the Adelaide Oval.
Pakistan blitz Kiwis to reach WC Final | 03:09
PREVIEW
The two cricket-mad nations of India and Pakistan, who share a combined population of about 1.7 billion, have only played one World Cup final against each other; the first T20 World Cup in 2007.
Another meeting in a final is a mouth-watering showdown the vast majority of the cricket world wants to see but England will have other ideas.
“Well, we certainly don’t want to see an India-Pakistan final, so we’ll be trying all we can do to make sure that doesn’t happen,” England captain Jos Buttler said.
England is missing two players for the match after Dawid Malan (groin) and Mark Wood (soreness) failed late fitness tests.
Wood has bowled the fastest ball of the tournament at 154.74kph.
They’ve been replaced by Phil Salt and Chris Jordan.
Captain Babar sets up Pakistan win! | 01:26
HOW TO WATCH
It’s crunch time at the T20 World Cup and you can catch every match live and ad-free in play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
TEAMS
India XI: Rohit Sharma (c), KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh
England XI: Jos Buttler (c, wk), Alex Hales, Phil Salt, Ben Stokes, Harry Brook, Moeen Ali, Liam Livingstone, Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, Chris Jordan, Adil Rashid
LIVE BLOG
[ad_2]
Source link
