Image Credit- ICC
India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, praised his team’s composure under duress as they defeated England handily in the T20 World 2024 semi-final to win an ICC final for the third time in four formats. India will take on South Africa on Saturday in an attempt to end their 11-year trophy drought at a global competition.
“We’ve been very calm as a team,” Rohit said after India’s 68-run win in Georgetown on Thursday afternoon. “We do understand the occasion [of a final], but for us, it’s important to keep calm and composed.
“That helps us make good decisions. We need to make good decisions through the 40 overs. In this game too, we were steady and calm, and didn’t panic too much. That has been the key for us. Yes, we do understand the occasion is important, but we need to play good cricket as well.”
Given that this matchup was a rematch of the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final, Rohit referred to the victory over England in the semi-final as “very satisfying”. Then, in Adelaide, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales easily crushed England’s goal of 169 runs, sending India down by ten wickets.
After two years, India’s spinners overturned England on a slow, low turner, with Rohit setting the tone to help India post 171 for 7, which he considered to be well above par.
“Yeah, it’s very satisfying to win this game,” Rohit said. “We’ve worked really hard to come to this stage, and to win the game like that was a great effort from everyone. I thought we played to the conditions really well; that’s been the success story for us so far. If bowlers and batters understand and play according to the conditions, things fall in place. It’s very pleasing how we came through.”
With 57 from 39 balls, Rohit top scored in the game, although the going wasn’t easy. His task of getting India’s innings going alongside Suryakumar Yadav was made more difficult by a spell of rain that arrived eight overs into the match. In just 8.2 overs, the duo scored 73 runs, giving India a chance to go for a competitive total.
“At one stage, we were feeling 140-150 was a good score as the game went on,” Rohit said. “Then we got some runs in the middle, me and Surya got that partnership, and then we said, ‘Okay another 25 more’. I can set a target in my mind but I don’t want to let anyone know about it. They’re all instinctive players, so I want them to go out and play freely without thinking about the par score. We know when we understand the condition well, we will get to a good score; [and] that’s what happened, and the bowlers were fantastic.”
Rohit showered the Indian spinners with plaudits for putting the brakes on England. In the fourth over, Axar Patel dismissed Buttler with his opening ball, setting the stage for England’s collapse. In the next over, he had Jonny Bairstow caught by an arm-ball. He won Player of the Match after finishing with 3 for 23 in his four overs.
To Axar’s credit, Kuldeep Yadav was as impressive. The way he subtly altered his attack, it was especially notable when he dismissed Harry Brook after being reverse swept. Similar to Axar, Kuldeep claimed three wickets.
“They are gun spinners,” Rohit said. “When conditions are like that in front of them, it’s very difficult to play some shots. Yes, the pressure is on them to execute those balls, but they were very calm and knew what to bowl. We had a chat after the first innings: the plan was to hit the stumps as much as possible and keep the stumps in play, [and] that’s what they did.”