Another thrilling game, another victory and England are in the semi-finals of the World Twenty20. If the women defeat Pakistan on Sunday then they are certain to join them in the last four. The strong likelihood is that both teams will be in Delhi on Wednesday, playing New Zealand and Australia respectively, an unprecedented occasion for English cricket.
On Saturday night Eoin Morgan’s team defeated Sri Lanka by 10 runs in a thrilling climax. Jos Buttler’s quickfire 66, allied to some spirited out-cricket, gave England the edge despite a wonderfully defiant innings from the Sri Lanka captain, Angelo Mathews, who was hobbling by the end after cracking an unbeaten 73. At one point Sri Lanka had descended to 15 for four in their pursuit of 172 but Mathews countered so effectively that victory was not certain for England until the final ball of the match.
Morgan was understandably delighted by the most complete performance England have managed in the tournament. Until Saturday they have excelled in only one discipline per match but here they were impressive with bat and ball and in the field.
“This gives us a great deal of confidence,” said the captain. “In our three wins we’ve had to show an immense amount of character, chasing down 230 against the South Africans; then against Afghanistan we put our backs against the wall early and had to fight hard. Today was completely different in the way we were ahead of the game by having them four down early. Then Angelo [Mathews] got them back into the game. So it asked different questions of us. They were right in the game until the end so Ben Stokes’s last over was as crucial as it gets.”
By then Sri Lanka needed 14 runs to tie the game so there was still plenty that could go wrong. “But Stokesy has done it before – against Australia last year and a couple of time since. The character they showed today was brilliant,” said a grateful captain.
There were many highlights beyond the contributions of Buttler and Stokes: a bright innings from Jason Roy, a brilliant diving catch by Joe Root, early wickets for David Willey and some timely yorkers from Chris Jordan on a day when England’s pacemen outshone the spinners, who were ruthlessly assaulted by Mathews.
“This was a significant improvement on the Afghanistan game,” said Morgan. “It’s nice to see us build from strength to strength.” Whether this improvement is sufficient to proceed to the final will be revealed on Wednesday. At least England will be familiar with the conditions by now, which should be an advantage. The semi-final will be their third consecutive match here.
No doubt Morgan will be on hand to deliver some handy hints to Charlotte Edwards and her team if necessary.
