adminADELAIDE. – Nights do not get much better than this in cricket.
Faced with a T20 World Cup semi-final against the might of India, England did not just win – they produced one of their greatest performances, sweeping aside their opponents in a glorious frenzy that left their supporters in a heady state of delirium.
A 10-wicket win was as comprehensive as they come.
England’s last World Cup match in Adelaide was their nadir.
Back in 2015, defeat by Bangladesh ended a pitiful 50-over World Cup campaign for a cricketing nation still visiting Blockbuster in the age of streaming.
Victory at Lord’s in 2019 will always stand alone among the highs that have come since but this 10-wicket victory against India holds up against anything else in the history of England’s white-ball side.
Beforehand, the task towering over England was daunting.
When Mark Wood and Dawid Malan went down injured in the lead up, England had five first-choice players on the injury list.
Their opponents, meanwhile, were a team of icons who transcend the sport, certainly in their home country of one billion cricket-mad fans. Icons who were backed by emotion the latest boyband could only dream of.
And that wave of feeling emanating from the stands filled the Adelaide Oval as an idyllic, picture-perfect setting turned into a baying theatre of blue, orange and green.
Flags waved, drums banged and horns blared long before the first ball.
By the last it was a small section of England fans who could be heard, as the rest slipped away.
Victory for Rohit Sharma’s side would have set up a meeting with Pakistan on Sunday, an occasion that would have brought a continent, possibly the sporting world, to a standstill.
It is fair to say India fans were not the only ones hoping England would go down in a valiant and entertaining defeat. – BBC Sport
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter