India face do-or-die conflict with West Indies

India arrange a winner-take-all conflict with West Indies on the T20 World Cup as they stored their hopes of a semi-final place alive with an emphatic 74-run Tremendous 8s win over Zimbabwe.

The event favourites’ heavy defeat to South Africa left them in a state of affairs the place a surprising defeat to Zimbabwe would have ended their possibilities of lifting the trophy.

However there was by no means a hazard of that state of affairs coming to cross, as a half-century from Abhishek Sharma (55) and blistering innings from Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma powered India to a exceptional complete of 256-4, with Sanju Samson (24) the one one of many six gamers who batted to not publish a rating of a minimum of 30.

Hardik struck an unbeaten 50 off 23 balls, whereas Varma hit 4 sixes in a 16-ball 44 as India posted the second-highest rating at a T20 World Cup, the West Indies having posted the third-highest rating (254-6) three days earlier towards the identical opposition.

That left the underdogs as soon as once more going through a report chase for a T20 World Cup. As soon as once more, they fell comfortably brief.

Opening batter Brian Bennett was a vivid spot for Zimbabwe, as he posted an unbeaten 97, however they had been all the time behind a run charge of just below 13.

Arshdeep Singh did the injury with the ball, taking 3-24, together with the dear scalp of Zimbabwe captain Sikandar Raza (31) as he grew to become the best India wicket-taker within the historical past of the boys’s T20 World Cup.

He surpassed the nice Jasprit Bumrah (33), his third wicket to take away Tony Munyonga (11) a yorker of which Bumrah would have been proud.

India captain calls for smarter bowling

Regardless of the large nature of their victory, India captain Suryakumar Yadav noticed clear areas by which his facet want to enhance if they’re to achieve the final 4.

Although Zimbabwe by no means regarded like troubling the large complete, the hosts nonetheless needed to work arduous for breakthroughs towards their batting line-up.

It was not till the seventeenth over, when Arshdeep dismissed Raza to scale back Zimbabwe to 144-3, that their innings actually went sideways, leaving Bennett’s in the end futile seek for a century as the one supply of intrigue within the closing overs.

“We wished to depart all the things behind, the final sport, the group stage,” Suryakumar mentioned.

“There was contributions from all batters and that was heartening to see. We may have been extra scientific with the ball, however a win is a win.

“We have to tighten our screws forward of the West Indies sport. We don’t need to take any credit score away from Zimbabwe batters. The best way they batted was very sensible. From the bowling viewpoint, we may have been smarter.”

South Africa by to semis, hosts face ‘de-facto quarter-final’

The consequence means South Africa, with two wins from their two Tremendous 8 matches, will characteristic within the final 4.

India’s sport with the Windies in Kolkata is now, in essence, a quarter-final.

There’s little latest historical past to go on when assessing that contest, as India and the Windies haven’t met in T20I cricket since a five-match sequence in August 2023.

The Windies received that sequence 3-2, however they final received a T20I match in India in December 2019. India final hosted the Windies for a T20I sequence in 2021-22 and received 3-0, with all three matches performed at Eden Gardens, the venue for Sunday’s decisive conflict.

Nevertheless, Eden Gardens does maintain a particular place in West Indian hearts. It was the stage that Carlos Brathwaite famously lit up as his exceptional remaining over delivered glory within the 2016 T20 World Cup remaining towards England. They may hope such heroics are usually not required to stun the hosts.