Jasprit Bumrah celebrates as India reach the T20 World Cup final. (Photo Credit: BCCI) MUMBAI: India, you can breathe again! After 34 sixes and 499 runs were scored in 40 overs, it all came down to one big hit that England failed to produce. Finally, Suryakumar Yadav’s men avoided the proverbial banana peel at the Wankhede on Thursday night and are now in the T20 World Cup final.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!The hero for England was 22-year-old Jacob Bethell, who smashed a 48-ball 105 (8×4; 7×6), his maiden T20I century, to give India a scare before the hosts held their nerve to seal a thrilling seven-run win.Suryakumar Yadav & Co., who became the first ever defending champions to reach the final, will now take on New Zealand at the summit in Ahmedabad on Sunday evening, hoping to become the first team to defend their title and the first host nation to lift the trophy.
India in T20 World Cup Final: Small contributions that made a HUGE impact
Chasing 254 balls, England were kept in check by Bethell, who added 77 for the fifth wicket in 39 balls with Will Jacks (35; 20b, 4×4, 2×6) and then 50 for 27 balls for the sixth wicket with Sam Curran (18; 14b, 2×4).However, the one-of-a-kind Jasprit Bumrah (1/33 in 4 overs) produced a master class on a pitch that offered nothing but bowler grief, conceding 14 runs off his last two overs, while Hardik Pandya (2/38 in 4 overs) gave away just nine in the penultimate over of the match, with England needing the last two for 39.Needing 30 to get out of the last over, England could only muster 22 from Shivam Dube as India breathed a sigh of relief. England finished on 246-7 in 20 overs.
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But the biggest stars of India’s nerve-racking victory were Axar Patel – who took two stunning catches to send back Harry Brook and Jacks – and Sanju Samson, who continued his fairytale comeback as he smashed 89 off just 42 balls (8×4, 7×6) to power the Men in Blue to 253/7.Axar’s stunning catch, running 24 meters from point to send back Brook, was a special moment that brought back memories of Kapil Dev’s famous catch on Viv Richards in the 1983 World Cup final at Lord’s. Bumrah also deserves credit for this wicket for producing a special slower one.In the 14th installment of the English spirited chase, Axar once again conjured magic. This time he sprinted from deep cover and lobbed the ball to Shivam Dube before crossing the boundary, Dube took a comfortable catch to send Jacks back. Earlier, apart from Samson’s thunderous knock, a couple of powerful cameos allowed India to have almost enough runs in the bank.Samson is proving to be the biggest hero of their campaign, a scenario few could have imagined when the batter was going through a lean patch recently. Samson put England’s attack to the sword after his match-winning knock of 97 against West Indies in the “virtual quarter-final” in Kolkata.Using the raw power of Samson and some other impressive contributions, India cruised to their highest ever score in a T20 World Cup knockout match.England were made to rue their captain’s huge error when Brook dropped Samson on 15 at mid off Jofra Archer in the third over. It cost 74 runs in 36 balls as Samson was simply unstoppable thereafter.With Samson in the lead, Shivam Dube (43, 25b, 1×4, 4×6), Ishan Kishan (39, 18b, 4×4, 2×6), Pandya (27, 12b, 3×4, 2×6) and Tilak Varma (21, 7b, 3×6) all went.GO NOW, T20 IS NOW! Identical team scores of 253 and 246 were seen in the ODI World Cup final between Australia and England at the Eden Gardens on 8 November 1987. Australia won the match by 7 runs.
499 – The aggregate for the loss of 14 wickets in a T20 World Cup match between India and England is the second highest in T20I history behind 517 in a T20I involving South Africa and West Indies at Centurion on March 26, 2023.
253 – India’s score is the first total of 250+ in WC T20 qualifiers, bettering WI’s 205/4 vs Aus at Colombo (RPS) on 5 Oct 2012.
1 -India are now the first team to boast two 250+ scores in the T20 World Cup. Second is 256/4 vs Zimbabwe at Chennai on 26 February 2026.
89 – Sanju Samson’s maiden fifty against England is his fifth, apart from 3 hundreds, in T20Is. His innings is the highest by a batsman in the knockout matches against England in the T20 World Cup.
1 – After scoring 97 in his previous innings against West Indies at the Eden Gardens, Samson became the first Indian batsman to score two consecutive 85+ scores in a T20 World Cup.
105 – Jacob Bethell scores first T20I century. His previous best was 62* vs WI at Gros Islet on 16 November 2024.
