Axar Patel's Brilliance Propels India Past England in T20 World Cup Semifinals

India defeated England handily in the T20 World Cup semifinals on Thursday, mostly thanks to Axar Patel's outstanding powerplay performance. His ability to keep things straightforward and successfully take advantage of the pitch conditions made life difficult for the English hitters, which ultimately led to India's victory.

Entering the attack in the fourth over, left-arm spinner Axar Patel (3/23) struck immediately, removing England captain Jos Buttler with his very first delivery. He continued to dismantle the English batting lineup by dismissing Jonny Bairstow and Moeen Ali in consecutive overs. England ultimately collapsed to 103 all out in their pursuit of 172.

"Obviously in the powerplay, it is difficult to bowl, but when you know that you are getting help from the wicket, then without thinking much, without doing anything extraordinary, I thought that the more I keep it simple, the easier it would be for me," Axar said during the post-match press conference.

"We spoke in the dressing room that it's not an easy wicket for batting, and I knew that the batsmen will charge at me. It wasn't going to be easy to hit me down the ground, and also they couldn't hit off the back foot because the ball wasn't coming on the bat," he added.

Axar's strategy was to keep the ball in the right areas and make it challenging for the batters to play their shots. His plan worked perfectly when Buttler, attempting a reverse sweep off Axar's first delivery, ended up giving a simple catch to wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant.

"I hadn't really planned to get a wicket on the first ball. My mindset was to put the ball in the right areas. Obviously, when you play knockouts, you want to start and finish well with the first and last ball," Axar said, reflecting on his match-winning performance.

India posted a competitive 171 for 7 after being asked to bat first. Axar revealed that the team was confident of defending the total, thanks to the tricky nature of the pitch.

"I think 170 was a par score; we could defend it. Rohit bhai said after he finished batting that it was very difficult to hit big shots because the odd ball was spinning, it was staying low, and skidding as well. When we made 170, we knew that we had scored 10-15 runs extra, which we could have defended," he explained.

Axar made a 10-run cameo and struck a six with the bat in addition to his valiant bowling efforts. He learned a lot about the pitch conditions throughout this brief time at the crease.

"It goes without saying that from that (batting), I learned what I could and could not do.
When I went to bat, everyone was bowling slower; the ball was not coming at the speed I wanted, so I couldn't connect properly. So giving pace would have made it easy for them. It was important to hit the ball in a good area," Axar elaborated.

India's total proved too much for England, who crumbled under pressure. Axar emphasized the importance of handling pressure, especially in a knockout match.

"It's also about pressure. When you are chasing, and you know that the wicket is helping the bowlers, as an opener or anyone in the top four, they think of cashing in on the powerplay as much as possible, but it didn't work out," he concluded.

Axar Patel's Player-of-the-Match performance was instrumental in India's comprehensive win, setting up a highly anticipated final showdown in the T20 World Cup.