Hales and Buttler’s record-breaking partnership helps England hammer India to reach T20 WC final

Alex Hales and Joss Buttler’s record-breaking opening stand helped England to seal an easy 10-wicket victory over India in the semi-final and reach the final of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022. 

The openers put up an unbeaten 170-run partnership, the highest in T20 World Cup history.

Kohli and Pandya gave India some respectability with their partnership, but Hales and Buttler were simply outstanding in reply.

Indian captain – Rohit Sharma struggled with the bat earlier in the day, and in the second innings – he was left clueless as a result of the pyrotechnics by the English openers.

Buttler hit three boundaries against Bhuvneshwar in the first over of the chase, and Hales multiplied India’s problems with his breathtaking knock thereafter.

There was never a moment when the England openers looked troubled during the run chase as they finished things off within 16 overs. 

It was Pakistan vs England 30 years ago at the MCG. 30 years later, and it will be Pakistan vs England again at the MCG.

If Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan made a triumphant return to form yesterday, Alex Hales and Jos Buttler have gone even better, obliterating India’s attack and showing up a strong opposition’s limitations along the way.

A ten-wicket win in a semi-final. With four overs remaining. An absolute hammering.

For India, this result has eerie echoes of their semi-final against West Indies at the Wankhede back in 2016. Their batting has evolved significantly since then, and that evolution has been accelerated over the last year or so, but they still have a long way to go to catch up with the very best T20 batting sides.