World T20 Champs Super 8s & KOs, Feb 21-March 8

[andy]

100 for Bethell off 45 balls! However this game ends that's one hell of an innings!

[andy]

30 needed off the last over...been a valiant effort to get this close...poor bowling and fielding effort to blame unfortunately

[andy]

He's run out and that will be the game unfortunately super effort was always gonna be way to many to chase unfortunately

[Arthur Crabtree]

I post that fully expecting Rehan to be left out and Bethell now to score a 35 ball ton.

Well, not quite, but a fine effort.

England go out with some honour.

Congrats to India. Bumrah the matchwinner.

[Durhamfootman]

Smart move not to bowl Dube at all. India might have fallen short chasing an extra 10 or 15 runs

I think Indian team management visited CMS and read our discussion recently

India forgot again and Dube's bowling got England got England 22 runs closer to an improbable target

If his memory is so bad that he forgets to not bowl Dube, then perhaps they should write it in magic marker on the back of SKY's hand

[Durhamfootman]

huge scoring game..... was it played on the billiard table again?

Congrats to India for getting to their own final

Congrats to England for getting as far as they did without ever really playing consistently well. As is so often the case, their best looking scorecard came in the dead rubber against future finalists NZ. SA will be cursing their luck about that

[Durhamfootman]

I post that fully expecting Rehan to be left out and Bethell now to score a 35 ball ton.

Nostradamus

[Durhamfootman]

I'm looking forward to seeing MPV being right in his BBC headline later

[Durhamfootman]

good effort at a chase though. Much more likely for a chasing team to get bowled out for not many with a 250+ target

3 sixes from the last 3 legal balls from Archer makes the score a lot tighter than perhaps it might have been..... just a shame he conceded 61 runs in his day job

[bigfluffylemon]

A decent effort. No great shame in going out to India on a semi at their own turf. The Wankhede clearly doesn't suit England if their openers don't get going.

On balance I think they leave the tournament with some credit as a positive overall. Things to improve, but they did better than I expected, and a semi final is always a reasonable result given T20 will invariably be something of a lottery.

[Arthur Crabtree]

England's spinners did quite well. But they won't want 3-4 of them in their next game. Presume side will change quite a bit.

[alfie]

A decent effort. No great shame in going out to India on a semi at their own turf. The Wankhede clearly doesn't suit England if their openers don't get going.

On balance I think they leave the tournament with some credit as a positive overall. Things to improve, but they did better than I expected, and a semi final is always a reasonable result given T20 will invariably be something of a lottery.

I think that is a fair summary. As Arthur said above , Bumrah's death bowling was the difference : unfortunately for England both Archer and Curran had poor games with the ball but the Indian maestro stood up when it counted.

Obviously the catching was a factor too : one very bad and costly drop by England early on while India (Axar in particular) brought off some absolute rippers.

England will need to freshen up their white ball list as some are at or near their end date ; but in Bethell they clearly have one for the future , along with Brook (who I do think might be better without the captaincy but that is up for debate)

A good final in prospect. Either could win without surprising. If it is as close as this one ended up , will be worth a watch...

[bigfluffylemon]

Bethell has definitely proved this winter that he is immensely talented. Hopefully has a big future ahead of him. An Ashes hundred in Australia and then this innings were both mature far beyond 22.

[andy]

Bethell has definitely proved this winter that he is immensely talented. Hopefully has a big future ahead of him. An Ashes hundred in Australia and then this innings were both mature far beyond 22.

The guys a class act and the more he actually bats and spends time in the middle across formats the better he will be he is a gem hopefully it's not a flash in the pan

[sussexpob]

Bethell has definitely proved this winter that he is immensely talented. Hopefully has a big future ahead of him. An Ashes hundred in Australia and then this innings were both mature far beyond 22.

The guys a class act and the more he actually bats and spends time in the middle across formats the better he will be he is a gem hopefully it's not a flash in the pan

Not going to be a popular opinion, but do these innings say much more about him than we already know? You say he showed maturity, but I am not sure you can say someone coming in and throwing the kitchen sink at every single ball shows really anything in terms of thought processes. I am not suddenly convinced if we are 5 down for nowt in a test match Bethell is going to grit out a tough spell of bowling because last night he stepped 2 metres outside his leg stump and windmill mowed a few balls into the stratosphere.

And lets be honest, the game was over, I am not sure you can say someone going down with the sinking ship still swinging is doing it under top level pressure. The situation itself basically speaks of that; Bethell scored one of the fastest 100s in history and England were still left with 31 required from the last over. Archer's dead rubber biffing made it look close, the truth is the game was dead after Bumrah served up a master class in the 17th, and was probably dead before England even started batting.

Can he hit a ball hard? Yeah sure, no doubt. Can he play T20 cricket? Yeah, for sure. Its clearly judging on his domestic career his specialty, and the only format he has any pedigree in.

I'd take more from a gritty 150 ball 20, or a quickfire 20 when a chase is realistically possible to achieve, over smashing 100 in 0 balls when you have zero hope of chasing.