India started terribly against England in the second semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2022 as they lost KL Rahul in the second over of their innings itself. The opening batter was dismissed for only 5 runs by Chris Woakes. The duo of Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma did stitch a 47-run partnership but they consumed a lot of deliveries in the process.
Rohit’s struggles came to an end when he mistimed a slog against Chris Jordan. The Indian captain walked back to the pavilion after scoring 27 runs off 28 balls. Suruyakumar Yadav too perished while trying up the ante. It was then on the duo of Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya to do the job for India. The two batters did put a prize on their wicket as Kohli and Pandya added 61 runs for the fourth wicket.
After Kohli got out, the onus was on Hardik Pandya to finish things off and the all-rounder did not disappoint at all. Pandya smashed a 29-ball 50 tore apart England’s death bowling. Meanwhile, Rishabh Pant who was preferred over Dinesh Karthik had to prove his mettle. But the wicketkeeper batter could not get things going as he was run out.
However, Pant did win the hearts of Indian fans as he sacrificed his wicket to get back Hardik Pandya in the last over of India’s innings. On the third ball of the 20th over, Pant could not put his bat to the ball. But Pandya wanted a single he was already halfway down the pitch. Seeing this, the wicketkeeper batter did not even think once and ran towards the non-striker’s end where Jordan whipped off the bails. He then made a gesture towards Hardik Pandya signalling it was absolutely fine for him.
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This sacrifice of Pant paid off for India as Pandya scored ten runs off the next two balls. On the back of Pandya’s blistering knock, India posted 168/6 in their 20 overs. Virat Kohli also chipped in with a half-century.
