It has been exactly a year since India bowed out of the group stages without making it to the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup when they were considered the favourites. Turning back to the present, team India, who were not considered favourites, are into the semi-final in a convincing fashion by topping their group. Oh, how the fortunes turn they say! England on the other hand is facing a familiar situation after going through a topsy-turvy group stage. They are still solid and are expected to show a fight back, especially after a heartbreaking loss last world cup against New Zealand.
With all things said, let us have an analytical look at the teams’ past performances and the records at Adelaide, which is rumoured to be a used pitch on the match day.
Adelaide Stadium Analysis
In the past three years, England and India have delivered some quality cricketing action and even though the record tilts towards India’s favour with five out of the eight wins, when we scrutinize further, the matches were relatively close. The average score at Adelaide in the past three years batting first has been 164 while in this world cup, it has been 157. The highest score of 178 speaks a lot about how challenging a 160-170 score would be to chase in this venue, and considering the rumoured used pitch news, it would make it tackier and two-paced. This fact is further backed by a towering win percentage stat for those who bat first in this ground and the value has gone up to 68 percent in this world cup.
A two-paced nature would also bring spin into consideration but pacers have thoroughly enjoyed this surface with a whooping 64 per cent of wickets taken by them. We have also seen a few masterful spells this world cup, be it Shaheen Afridi’s 4-fer against Bangladesh or Brandon Glover’s magical 3-fer against South Africa where a lot relied on variations rather than pure pace bowling.
India & England – Batting Analysis
A visible flaw with England’s batting has been their middle order. None of their batsmen has been consistent across all the four matches they played and their poor average and strike rate is worrisome. India on the other hand has a more stable middle order with the likes of Surya Kumar Yadav and Hardik Pandya providing constant support but they would still be worried about their over-dependence on Surya in the middle order (scored 71.4 percent of India’s middle order runs) and the finishing touches of Dinesh Karthik.
Looking at an individual performance perspective, Buttler and Hales have been England’s top performers with Hales consistently scoring well in the last 2 matches. But with Stokes returning back to his original best last match, England is in the front seat and they would really be hoping for Moeen Ali and Livingstone to provide the necessary support in the last 8-10 overs. India on the other hand will be pleased with the performance of the returning Virat Kohli and Surya Kumar Yadav, who has been the backbone of team India. They would also be pleased with Rahul who has looked steady in the last couple of matches but they would definitely want him to deliver during the clutch moments.
India & England – Bowling Analysis
While the batting may have not been up to the mark for England, their bowling has been nothing short of phenomenal. They have a phenomenal record in the death overs this world cup having taken 21 wickets in the death overs even without the presence of their strike bowler, Jofra Archer. Massive credit has to be given to Sam Curran for bowling brilliantly both in the power play and death overs and nailing his wide yorkers to perfection. Another surprise name in the list is Ben stokes having a fantastic economy and is average among other regular bowlers.
Coming to the Indian bowlers, the consistent performance of Arshdeep in the powerplay and the wicket-taking tendency of Hardik Pandya is a huge plus for India. Though Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar haven’t been among the wickets, they have been consistently providing the necessary support by creating pressure on batsmen with their accurate bowling.
Conclusion
Though both the teams have their strengths and downsides, one can surely be assured of a high-quality match that is going to take place on the 10th of September. It will be a battle between the brains and the brawns. Which team belongs to which group, we will come to know soon.
