India captain Rohit Sharma lavished praise on the gun spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel for the spectacle they produced in the semi-final of the ongoing T20 World Cup against England in Guyana. After Jos Buttler smacked away Arshdeep Singh for three boundaries in the third over, Axar Patel turned the tide on his first delivery of the match. Axar removed England captain Jos Buttler (23) by going away from his usual style of skidding the ball and decided to spin it. The English skipper tried to counterattack with a reverse sweep. He bottomed it straight to Rishabh Pant behind the stumps.
He continued to cause English batters a handful of trouble, and Kuldeep came in to increase their woes.
Axar removed the opening order and starred with his influential spell of 3/23. Kuldeep provided the ideal support by fending off the middle-order and ending with the figures of 3/19.
Rohit heaped praise on the left-arm spin duo while revealing the plan of action that they adopted to take the brunt of England's aggressive nature.
"They (Axar and Kuldeep) are gun spinners. When the conditions like that are in front of them, It's difficult to play some shots. The pressure is on them as well to come and execute those balls, but they were calm and knew what to bowl. We had a little chat after the first innings - try and hit the stumps as much as possible, keep the stumps in play," Rohit said in the post-match presentation.
The spinners caused the majority of the damage, and Jasprit Bumrah came in to add icing on the cake. England, who came out to recreate another spitting image of the 2022 World Cup semi-final, fell short and saw their title defence crumble.
The double nature of the pitch didn't help England's cause during the chase of 172. A couple of deliveries stayed low, while some took flight after touching the surface.
Rohit, satisfied with the win, emphasized the need to adapt to the challenging conditions that laid the foundation for their first appearance in the final after ten years.
"Very satisfying to win this game. We worked really hard as a unit. To win this game like that was a great effort from everybody. We adapted to the conditions really well. The conditions were a little challenging, we had to adapt, and that's been the success story for us so far till this game. The bowlers and the batters, if they play according to the conditions, things fall in place, and that's exactly what happened for us today," Rohit said.
After being put to bat, India lost Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant inside the powerplay. The mantle fell on Rohit and Suryakumar Yadav to drive India's scoreboard.
India were reeling on a close score to 140, but their 73-run stand took them to a competitive total of 171/7.
"Very pleasing to see how we came through this game. At one stage, we were feeling 140-150, and as the game went on, we got some runs in the middle, me and Surya. We got that partnership. I can set the target in my mind, but I don't want to let anyone know about it, to the batters ... because ... they are instinctive players, and I want them to go out there and play freely without thinking too much about what's the par score. We bat well, we understand the condition well, we will get to a good score, and that's exactly what happened. We got to 170, which I thought was a very good score on that pitch, and then the bowlers were fantastic," he added.
England failed to understand the nature of the surface and eventually succumbed to a total of 103 in 16.4 overs.
The final of the T20 World Cup is now perfectly set as the clash between the unbeaten sides, India and South Africa, is set to take place in Barbados on Saturday.
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