India vs England, 2nd Semi-Final, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

What a pitch that was. Brook said he was hoping for some early tackiness after opting to bowl. But nope, absolutely flat from first ball to last. No dew, no real advantage batting first or second, and an absolute nailbiter of a game with bowlers getting beaten senseless. India's execution at the death, though, was much better. Of course it had to be with Bumrah in the ranks. But even with the new ball their lengths were better and both Hardik and Arshdeep found more than twice the amount of swing than England did. Still, it could've so easily gone the other way given how well Bethell was timing the ball. The way he bullied Chakaravarthy was insane. India will just be relieved that they've survived all the madness. 34 sixes in the match, 499 runs, and a final over finish. Tiring business. That's all from this second semifinal. It will be India vs New Zealand on the big night in Ahmedabad. See you then. For now, this is Sagar Chawla signing off on behalf of Siva, Pradeep Krishnamurthy and Abhinand Raghavendran.

Suryakumar Yadav | India captain: It’s an unbelievable feeling. Obviously, playing in India, leading such a wonderful side, and with the World Cup happening here, going to Ahmedabad to play that final. I think it’s a special feeling for all the boys. I think he knew what he wanted to do as soon as he went in to bat (on Sanju Samson). Even when a wicket fell, he knew the wicket was good, so he kept pressing the pedal. The way he batted was exactly what the team required. It was due after all the hard work he’s been putting in over the last year. It was a special knock today. (on the England run-chase) Oh my God! I just told Harry Brook, “How much more do we need to score against you guys?” But honestly, it was a good wicket. The way they batted, I don’t want to take credit away from them. They were always in the game and always in the chase. But the way Jasprit Bumrah, Arshdeep Singh, and the other bowlers pulled the game back was unbelievable. We all know what he’s capable of and what he’s done for India over the years (on Jasprit Bumrah). He did the same thing again today, raised his hand and showed character to pull the game away from them. It was a special bowling performance. I think we need to give some credit to our fielding coach Dilip T as well (on India’s superb catching). The way he’s been working with the boys in practice sessions, making them fun and competitive - the boys have responded really well. Even after their personal skill sessions, they put in extra work for the team, and that’s showing on the field. In this team, everything is settled till number three (on the left-right batting and the promotion of Shivam Dube), so we didn’t want to change anything. But when we saw Rashid bowling from one end, Dube was a perfect match-up. Even if I had scored a 50 or 100 in the last game, if the team needed that change today, it was the right call. Very nervous! If someone had checked my heart rate, it would have easily been 160–175. But that’s part of the game (if he was nervous during the chase). It was a wonderful semi-final, and now we’re very happy to go into the final. (on the crowd) The moment we came in for warm-ups, the stadium was already 75–80% full. That shows how badly they wanted India to do well today. Even though we batted first, they were really happy with the way we played. Hopefully, we gave them a great show going into the final. (Thoughts on the final) There will definitely be pressure and nerves, especially playing in India and going for the title. But the boys and the whole support staff are excited as well.

Harry Brook | England captain: We just thought there might be a little bit of hold early on with the pitch being fresh, and we expected a bit more spin in the first innings. But it didn’t quite turn out that way. Obviously, they played extremely well (on the Indian batting). All of our lads should be really proud of the way we played tonight and throughout this competition. Absolutely. I’ll hold my hands up and say that I made a big mistake there, dropping Samson. As the old saying goes, catches win matches, and unfortunately things just didn’t go our way in the field tonight. At the end of the day, it cost us. Just a bit of misexecution here and there (on the bowling). We probably didn’t execute as well as we could have. But the Indian batters are some of the best in the world, and if you misexecute against them, the ball goes out of the park. So yeah, we probably didn’t execute as well as we could have, but like I say, we gave it a red-hot crack and unfortunately ended up on the wrong side of the result. He was absolutely unbelievable (on Jacob Bethell). I think he’s going to earn some serious money in his career and have a fantastic career with England. He showed the world how good he is tonight. Unfortunately we were on the wrong side, but that innings is a huge positive to take away from this competition. Seeing him go out there and take the game on from ball one, showing everyone what he can do, it was special. I think we had a good tournament, to be honest. Like I said earlier, we should be extremely proud of the way we played. I mentioned the other day that we’re never out of games, and that was proven again tonight. Chasing 250, other teams might have folded or crumbled away, but we stuck at it the whole game. We gave it a real go, and unfortunately we were just on the wrong side of it tonight.

Highest individual scores in T20 WC knockouts
105 - Jacob Bethell vs IND, Mumbai WS, 2026
100* - Finn Allen vs SA, Kolkata, 2026 SF
96* - Tillakaratne Dilshan vs WI, The Oval, 2009 SF
89* - Virat Kohli vs WI, Mumbai WS, 2016 SF
89 - Sanju Samson vs ENG, Mumbai WS, 2026
(Three of the top five in ongoing edition)

T20 WC hundreds for ENG
116* - Alex Hales vs SL, Chattogram, 2014
105 - Jacob Bethell vs IND, Mumbai WS, 2026
101* - Jos Buttler vs SL, Sharjah, 2021
100 - Harry Brook vs PAK, Pallekele, 2026*

Jacob Bethell became the first batter to score his maiden first class, List A and T20 century in International cricket.

Team playing in consecutive T20 WC finals
Pakistan - 2007 and 2009
Sri Lanka - 2012 and 2014
India - 2024 and 2026

Boundary count tonight: 73 (39 fours and 34 sixes) - the most in a T20 WC match, well clear of the next best: 61 between England and South Africa at this venue in 2016

Pacers off (< 128 kph) today
England: 0/51 off 18 balls (ER 17.00)
Bumrah: 1/10 off 10 balls (ER 6.00)

Most sixes in a T20 WC match
34 - IND vs ENG, Mumbai WS, 2026 SF
31 - WI vs ZIM, Mumbai WS, 2026
30 - NED vs IRE, Sylhet, 2014
28 - IND vs ZIM, Chennai, 2026
25 - ENG vs ITA, Kolkata, 2026

Most runs from No.6 or lower in a T20 WC edition
226 - Will Jacks in 2026 (SR: 176.56)
218 - Misbah-ul-Haq in 2007 (SR: 139.74)
175 - Cameron White in 2010 (SR: 149.57)
171 - Michael Hussey in 2010 (SR: 172.72)
167 - Sam Curran in 2026 (SR: 120.14)

Highest match aggregates in Men’s T20Is
517 - SA vs WI, Centurion, 2023
499 - IND vs ENG, Mumbai WS, 2026
496 - IND vs NZ, Thiruvananthapuram, 2026
489 - IND vs WI, Lauderhill, 2016
488 - NZ vs AUS, Auckland, 2018
488 - Bulgaria v Serbia, Sofia, 2022

Previous highest in T20 WCs: 459 - ENG vs SA, Mumbai WS, 2016

Sanju Samson | Player of the Match: "Feels really great. To be honest, I kind of knew that I got some form going from the last game, so I thought I need to continue. I think it's not easy you find form at the crucial games for your country, so I thought big game, I need to make the most out of how I'm batting. So I gave myself an extra time. I calculated my innings a bit. I prepared really well and I think things came off nicely. Got a bit lucky to start off and then I just wanted to carry on. Knowing, playing in Wankhede, we know that no score is stoppable here, so I just wanted to get as much as possible, runs as possible. Even 250 looked like chaseable here and England played really well. All credit goes to how they batted and we really had a great semifinal. (Batting 1st vs 2nd) As I told before, you need to assess the conditions. We have played a lot of cricket here in Wankhede, as I said before, chasing becomes a bit easier here. They won the toss, put us into bat, so we knew after the way we batted, the way myself and Ishaan batted, the partnership which we had for after Abhishek got out, I thought that 250 should be possible here. So I think that's what we were talking about in the dressing room as well. So yeah, very happy how the team turned up today and all credit goes to Jasprit Bumrah, the world class bowler, once in a generation bowler. I think that's what he delivered today. This (award) should go to him actually. If we didn't bowl that way in the death overs, I think I would not be standing here. All credit goes to the bowlers, how they backed themselves in the tough conditions. (On the Wankhede crowd) Oh wow, as you have witnessed here, it's an unbelievable feeling to play in Wankhede right from childhood. The way people support actually both the Indian team and also the England team, there were the real supporters of the cricket as well. So I really enjoyed playing here, but we wanted to put in a positive result for them, but very happy results actually made them happy today. (Hundreds matter?) I think not at all. 100, you can't actually score a hundred. It actually comes in the process. It's not a Test game, it's not a ODI game where you can go up and down, up and down. Once you've got the start, you're batting first. There is no other way. You just have to keep going hard, hard, hard. And once you end up on the right side, who knows, I think, which amount of runs I'm getting. So I'm very happy to get whatever I'm getting and very happy to contribute on the winning side for my country."

22:53 Local Time, 17:23 GMT, 22:53 IST: Phew that turned out to be a lot closer than you would've thought after India smashed 253 in the first innings. England made them sweat properly in the sweltering heat of Mumbai with Jacob Bethell playing a knock to remember. With 69 needed off the last five overs, the game was right in the balance on a belter of a pitch that offered absolutely nothing to the bowlers. Was a situation calling out for someone to grab the game by the scruff of its neck. And who else was it going to be, other than that man who simply doesn't miss. Yorker after yorker after yorker. His two remaining overs went for a mere 14 runs with England deciding to play him off rather than taking too many risks. It left them with way too much to do, and if they were hoping to compensate against Arshdeep and Hardik, that wasn't the case as both of them stepped up as well. Hardik deserves a lot of credit, started off brilliantly with the new ball, swinging it sharply and then closed the game at the death as well. And what about the catching from Axar. Just sensational stuff under pressure.