T20 World Cup: Team India's road to semi-finals — thrilling win over Pakistan to scare against Bangladesh

The 2022 edition of the T20 World Cup has been one of the most exciting ones in the history of the tournament. It has already given us some nail-biting finishes and major upsets.

Two-time champions West Indies were knocked out of the tournament in the first round, Sri Lanka lost to Namibia in the first fixture, Ireland defeated England while Pakistan lost to Zimbabwe and then the biggest one, South Africa bowed out of the competition after losing to the Netherlands in their final Super 12 stage match.

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The high-voltage clash between arch-rivals India and Pakistan went down the wire while defending champions Australia failed to make it to the semis, courtesy of a thumping defeat against New Zealand in the first match, some rain-curtailed games and a not-so-convincing win against Afghanistan.

READ: India’s Super 12 campaign reflects an uptick in performance, but will it be enough in semis?

Well, all said and done, we finally have our four semi-finalists, India, Pakistan, England and New Zealand.

We now take a look at India’s road to semi-finals.

India vs Pakistan

The Men in Blue locked horns with Pakistan in their first match of the tournament in Melbourne. India were handed a target of 160 after fifties from Shan Masood and Iftikhar Ahmed took Pakistan to 159/8 in 20 overs.

But the Rohit Sharma-led side had a disappointing start to the run chase as they were left tottering at 31/4 but what was unleashed next was a batting masterclass from Virat Kohli.

Kohli along with Hardik Pandya provided the resistance that the Indian team needed as the two batters stitched a stand of 113 runs for the fifth wicket.

The partnership between Kohli and Pandya had helped India to stay in the hunt but they still had their task cut out as the side needed 31 from the final two overs.

Kohli then took the onus on himself and hit Haris Rauf for a couple of sixes on the trot on the final two balls of the penultimate over to bring down the equation to 16 required off the last over.

Special win. Thank you to all our fans for turning up in numbers. pic.twitter.com/hAcbuYGa1H

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 23, 2022

But the drama was yet to unveil. Mohammad Nawaz who had an ordinary day was once again given the ball to bowl this final over.

The spinner responded well as he scalped the important wicket of Hardik Pandya on the very first ball that brought Dinesh Karthik out in the middle. The right-handed batter took a single and gave the strike back to Kohli who further added a couple on the next ball.

Nawaz had taken a wicket and only gave three runs in the first three deliveries of the over before the drama unfolded.

He first bowled a waist-height no-ball to Kohli who hammered it for a maximum and followed it with a wide before India eventually got three byes on the free-hit.

But it didn’t end there. India now needed two off two with Karthik on strike. Nawaz got rid of the wicket-keeper batter after he was stumped out and the equation was now down to 2 required off one with Ashwin on strike.

The spinner then made a huge blunder as he followed Ashwin who was making some room for himself and bowled a wide going down the leg side.

India now needed one from one with Ashwin still on strike.

The Indian batter held his nerves and hit Nawaz over mid-off to score the winning runs on the last ball of the match. India won by 4 wickets and got off the mark in World Cup. Kohli returned not out for 82 off 53.

India vs Netherlands

India were up against the Netherlands in the next match in Sydney. Batting first, India lost KL Rahul early in the innings but some fine display from Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav with the willow took them to 179/2 in 20 overs.

All three batters struck individual fifties.

Later, the Indian bowling unit thoroughly dominated the Dutch batting line up and picked wickets at regular intervals to eventually restrict them to 123/9 in 20 overs and win the match by 56 runs.

Another strong result. pic.twitter.com/J5gKb6za8F

— Virat Kohli (@imVkohli) October 27, 2022

Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled the most economical spell as he returned with figures of 2/9 in three overs while Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh and Ashwin also scalped two wickets apiece.

India vs South Africa

India’s winning run was halted when they met Proteas in Perth. The South African pace bowlers, Lungi Ngidi and Wayne Parnell rattled the Indian batting setup and restricted them to 133/9 in 20 overs.

Suryakumar Yadav was the only batter who showed some resistance and chipped in with 68 off 40 and helped the team put something on the board.

Parnell scalped three wickets while Ngidi bagged a four-wicket haul.

In reply, India also picked up early wickets and reduced South Africa to 24/3 before Aiden Markram and David Miller came in for the rescue and put up a 76-run stand for the fourth wicket. Both the batters notched up individual half-centuries during the chase.

While Markam scored 52 off 41, Miller remained unbeaten at 59 off 46 to take the side home by 5 wickets.

India vs Bangladesh

India had another hiccup when Bangladesh’s Litton Das took on the bowling attack while chasing a target of 185 in Adelaide.

India rode on the fifties from KL Rahul and Virat Kohli and an important 16-ball 30 from Suryakumar Yadav to post 184/6 in 20 overs.

In reply, Bangladesh openers and especially Das began the chase in an aggressive manner and were 66/0 after 7 overs before rain interrupted the show. They were 17 runs ahead of the DLS par score at that point in time.

The side was later handed a revised target of 151 in 16 overs but lost wickets at regular intervals after the break and could only manage to put 145/6 on the board in the allotted 16 overs to suffer a defeat by 5 runs (D/L Method).

pic.twitter.com/WoEBakCdrJ

— Surya Kumar Yadav (@surya_14kumar) November 6, 2022

India vs Zimbabwe

India thumped Zimbabwe by 71 runs in Melbourne to take the top spot in the points table and end the round with 8 points under their belt.

Batting first, India posted 186/5, courtesy of a fifty from KL Rahul and some power-hitting from Suryakumar Yadav who struck an unbeaten 61 off 25.

Later, the Indian bowlers once again rattled the Zimbabwean batting line-up and bowled them out for 115 to clinch a win in the 18th over. Ashwin scalped three wickets while Shami and Hardik Pandya had two dismissals each to their names. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Arshdeep Singh and Axar Patel picked up one wicket apiece.

India will now play England in the semi-final in Adelaide on Thursday.

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