Rohit Sharma Credits India’s Success to Playing to Conditions in ICC T20 World Cup 2024
India’s captain, Rohit Sharma, highlighted that the ability to adjust to the circumstances was a crucial component of the team’s success, as they advanced to their third consecutive ICC final in all formats.
In addition, Rohit commended the spinners for playing a crucial part in India’s convincing victory over England in the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final.
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 declared following India’s victory on Thursday afternoon in Georgetown by 68 runs. “We recognize the significance of the event [of a final], but maintaining composure is crucial for us.
“It assists us in coming to wise decisions. Over the course of the 40 overs, we must make wise decisions. We maintained our composure and did not overreact during this game either. For us, that has been crucial. Yes, we are aware that the occasion is significant, but we also need to play well in the cricket match.”
Given that this match was a rematch of the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final, Rohit referred to the victory against England as “very satisfying”. Then, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales easily crushed England’s 169-run mark in Adelaide, 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 replied. “Everyone put forth a terrific effort to win the game the way we did; we’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this point. I felt we really successfully played the situation; thus far, it has been our success story. Everything falls into place if batsmen and bowlers comprehend the conditions and perform accordingly. We’re really happy with how we performed.”
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 stated. “After we had a few runs in the middle, Surya and I formed a relationship, and we decided to go for another twenty-five runs. I’m able to make goals for myself, but I don’t want to share them with others. Since they are all natural athletes, I want them to play without concern for the par score. We believe that when we fully comprehend the conditions, we will achieve a high score, and the bowlers were excellent.”
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.
Rohit remarked, “They are gun spinners.” It is really challenging to play some shots when the circumstances in front of them are that bad. Although they had a lot of pressure to perform well on those balls, they remained composed and understood just how to bowl. After the first inning, we had a conversation. They executed the plan, which was to hit the stumps as frequently as possible while keeping them in play.”
In the midst of the celebration, Rohit supported Virat Kohli to break through his run of poor performances in the T20 World Cup. Reece Topley clean bowled Kohli on Thursday when he was trying to slug one over the leg-side boundary, dismissing him for nine runs. This World Cup, Kohli has amassed 75 runs at a strike rate of 100 in seven innings.
“Look, he’s a quality player, and you can go through that,” Rohit stated. “We are aware of his stature and significance at major events. After fifteen years of playing, form never matters. He appears well-groomed, his intentions are clear, and it’s likely that he’s holding back for the championship.”
In an interview with Star Sports, head coach Rahul Dravid supported Kohli as well and expressed his admiration for the “intent” and “attitude” the first batter was displaying.
“You know, with Virat, there are moments when it doesn’t work out when you play a slightly high-risk style of cricket. Even today, I felt he set the tone with a pretty fantastic six, but he was just unfortunate that the ball seemed to be sailing a little bit more. However, I like the goal and the method he used. If he’s prepared to undertake it, it also serves as a good example for the others. And for some reason, you know, I don’t want to ruin it, but I believe a huge one is about to happen. I think he deserves it because of his dedication to the game and his great attitude.”
Also Read: India’s Comprehensive Victory Over England in T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Final
Jos Buttler Regrets Not Bowling Moeen Ali as England Falls to India in T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Final
Jos Buttler, the captain of England, acknowledged that his side was utterly outclassed during their 68-run loss to India in the Guyana T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final.
Still, he maintained that their defeat was not primarily due to his choice to bowl first after winning the toss. On a spin-friendly pitch, England chose to bowl first and enabling India to reach 171 for 7, with important contributions from Suryakumar Yadav (47 off 36) and Rohit Sharma (57 off 39). Buttler conceded that the score of India was “20-25 runs too many” given the circumstances.
England fell to 103 all out in 100 deliveries as a result of their reply. Axar Patel was instrumental, taking out Buttler for 23 and then getting rid of Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow to win Player-of-the-Match with numbers of 3 for 23. With a final score of 3 for 19, Kuldeep Yadav further destroyed England’s middle order. Buttler said after the game, “They really outplayed us. Perhaps we gave them too many runs—20–25. They performed better in cricket, and the surface was difficult.”
England’s seam-heavy plan suffered from disruptions and a delayed start due to morning rain. With just 49 runs conceded in eight overs, Liam Livingstone and Adil Rashid proved to be England’s most efficient bowlers, but Reece Topley and Chris Jordan were kept in place over an extra spinner.
Buttler then expressed regret for not included Moeen Ali in the attack. The spin was playing so well that I ought to have brought Moeen on. Though both of our spinners did a good job, India’s spinners outbowled us, Buttler added.
Buttler said that conditions didn’t really change despite the rain and attributed India’s victory over England to their better play more than the toss choice.
This loss was similar to England’s 2022 T20 World Cup semifinal triumph over India, which they achieved by 10 wickets. Having held the 50- and 20-over world titles concurrently for the first time, England’s men’s team has now lost both trophies. Though losing three of four games against big opponents, England’s semi-final exit was nevertheless better than their 50-over World Cup performance.
Buttler said after the competition, “India deserves praise for their strong performance. Despite the difficulties and obstacles we encountered, we are proud of everyone’s efforts.”
The T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final exit of England emphasizes the crucial role that spinners play on shifting surfaces and the significance of tactical choices in crucial games. Buttler’s open observations offer insightful analysis of the mechanics of high-stakes cricket as England attempts to recover and grow from this experience.
Axar Patel Shines with Tactical Brilliance to Defeat England in T20 World Cup 2024 Semi-Final
In the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final, India easily defeated the reigning champions, England, thanks to Axar Patel’s calculated strategy. On a tough pitch in Guyana, Patel’s brilliant strategy with the ball and the bat was crucial.
The captain of India, Rohit Sharma, had informed Axar Patel, when he got the ball in the fourth over in England’s chase of 172, that the pitch was keeping low and skidding, and that hitting the big strokes was difficult.
After posting a total that included “10–15 extra” runs on a pitch that was hard to bat, India were already feeling confident. Axar reasoned that since the bats would attack him early on, it would be best to avoid doing anything “extraordinary” and force the batsmen to try and do different things, which might work to his advantage.
When Axar delivered his opening ball, which was from around the wicket to England captain Jos Butter, he attempted a reverse sweep but instead popped the ball to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. After thereafter, Axar dismissed Moeen Ali and Jonny Bairstow in back-to-back overs to depart England at 46 for 4, finishing with a stifling 3 for 23, which won him Player-of-the-Match.
Laughing, Axar added, “I hadn’t really planned to get a wicket on the first ball,” during the news conference. “I tried to think of ways to place the ball in the correct spots. It goes without saying that you want to start and finish strong with the first and last ball when playing knockouts.
“In the powerplay, the strategy was standard. Bowling in the powerplay is difficult, but if you know that the wicket is helping you, you can bowl with more ease. So, without thinking too much or doing anything special, I figured that the more basic my bowling was, the simpler it would be for me. It’s not an easy pitch [for batting], as we discussed in the dressing room, and I anticipated the batsman would charge at me. The ball wasn’t coming on the bat nicely, so it wasn’t going to be easy to hit me off the back foot or to hit me down the ground.”
“My plan was to make it difficult for them, force them to think of playing some other shots, and, that’s what happened on the first ball.”
“I believe we were aware that we might stop 170; it was a par score. The way the wicket was acting, and after he finished batting, Rohit bhai commented that it was really hard to smash huge strokes since the odd ball was spinning, staying low, and even skidding. We believed that 150–160 was a pretty respectable score that we could have held onto. Thus, we knew we had ten to fifteen runs left over until we reached 170.”
Axar noticed that Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer were picking up pace when he batted at No. 8 for six balls in the final overs. Despite this, he managed to hit a six off one of Jordan’s slower deliveries.
About the notes he wrote in his head while hitting, Axar remarked, “Obviously, I got a clue from that as to what to do and what not to.” “It would have been simple for them if we had given pace. Bowling at nice spots was ideal. When I’ve pitched the ball at a decent length, nobody has struck me. I made an effort to pitch the ball on a solid length and line on the powerplay because it was crucial.”
At 91.5 km/h, his initial delivery to Buttler wasn’t that fast. Even though he bowled a bit faster—94.5 km/h—to Bairstow, he remained accurate by pitching the ball around off stump; the ball skidded on with a low bounce, knocking over the off stump. He had given up just 11 runs in his opening two overs, so his third wicket came about as a result of both good fortune and hard work.
After seven overs, England were 46 for 3, and Moeen was on 8 from 9 balls when he attempted to clip an Axar delivery off his pads and raced ahead for what he believed to be a single. However, as Moeen went out of the crease, the ball simply bounced off his pad towards Pant, who whipped the bails off.
When asked if England batsmen worried more about facing spinners than other teams, Axar responded, “It’s also about pressure,” adding that when chasing, you know that the pitch is assisting the bowlers under that situation. Thus, they must be considering making the most money out of the powerplay as an opener or anyone in the top four. That’s probably what they were considering, but it was unsuccessful.
“I believe it was challenging to hit powerful strokes, sweeps, and reverse sweeps because some balls on the pitch stayed low, making it difficult to connect. It casts uncertainty on the batsman’s mind that he will be smacked on the pad if he sweeps and the ball stays low. Thus, it relies on the length and line you bowl. The majority of our spinners maintained it stump to stump, making it extremely challenging to perform the sweeps and reverse sweeps.”
“Then, the batsmen think of hitting straight as an option but we had seen videos of their batsmen that they play a lot on the back foot, but on this kind of pitch you have to come on the front foot and play your shots.”
