India's Spinners Shine as They Reach Third Straight ICC Final

India's captain, Rohit Sharma, has praised his team's composure under pressure after their emphatic 68-run victory over England in the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final. This victory marks India's third consecutive ICC final across formats, and they will now face South Africa on Saturday in an attempt to end their 11-year trophy drought at a world event.

"We've been very calm as a team," Rohit said after the match. "We understand the occasion, but for us, it's important to keep calm and composed. That helps us make good decisions. We need to make good decisions through the 40 overs. In this game too, we were steady and calm, and didn't panic too much. That has been the key for us. Yes, we do understand the occasion is important, but we need to play good cricket as well."

Rohit described the semi-final win over England as "very satisfying," especially given that it was a repeat of the T20 World Cup 2022 semi-final. In that match, India suffered a humiliating ten-wicket defeat as Jos Buttler and Alex Hales chased down England's target of 169 with ease.

This time, however, it was India's spinners who turned the tables on England on a slow, low turner. Rohit set the tone with a well-paced 57 off 39 balls, helping India post a competitive total of 171 for 7.

"Yeah, it's very satisfying to win this game," Rohit said. "We've worked really hard to come to this stage, and to win the game like that was a great effort from everyone. I thought we played to the conditions really well; that's been the success story for us so far. If bowlers and batters understand and play according to the conditions, things fall in place. It's very pleasing how we came through."

Rohit was particularly impressed with the performance of India's spinners, who applied relentless pressure on England's batsmen. Axar Patel started England's slide by dismissing Buttler off his very first delivery, and then had Jonny Bairstow with an arm-ball in his second. He finished with 3 for 23 off his four overs to walk away with the Player-of-the-Match award.

Axar was complemented by Kuldeep Yadav, who also was magnificent. His dismissal of Harry Brook after being reverse swept was particularly noteworthy because of the subtle change in his line of attack. Kuldeep, like Axar, also picked up three wickets.

"They are gun spinners," Rohit said. "When conditions are like that in front of them, it's very difficult to play some shots. Yes, the pressure is on them to execute those balls, but they were very calm and knew what to bowl. We had a chat after the first innings: the plan was to hit the stumps as much as possible and keep the stumps in play, [and] that's what they did."

Amid the cheer, Rohit also backed Virat Kohli to come out of his string of low scores in this T20 World Cup. Kohli was dismissed for 9 on Thursday as he was clean bowled by Reece Topley looking to slog one over the leg-side boundary. Kohli has so far aggregated 75 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 100 this World Cup.

"Look, he's a quality player, and you can go through that," Rohit said. "We understand his class and importance in big games. Form is never a player when you've played for 15 years. He's looking good, the intent is there, [and] probably he's saving himself for the final."

Tags: #T20WorldCup2024, #India, #England, #RohitSharma, #AxarPatel