India's T20 WC Semifinal Thriller: Samson, Bumrah Heroics Seal Final Berth

Defending champions India, led by Suryakumar Yadav, defeated England by seven runs in a high-scoring thriller at Wankhede and sealed their place in the T20 WC final against New Zealand.

Sanju Samson's 42-ball 89 set the tone for India's massive first innings score of 253-7. However, England, courtesy of Jacob Bethell's century, were in the hunt for India's target for most of the match.

With England appearing to be on course for victory, the match's turning point came when Jasprit Bumrah delivered a brilliant 18th over, conceding just six runs while England needed 45 from the final three overs at the start of it. Following his effort, Hardik Pandya further tightened the pressure with an excellent penultimate over, giving away only nine runs and dismissing Sam Curran.

Speaking to ANI, Virat Kohli's childhood coach Rajkumar Sharma praised India's strong performance, highlighting the big total and a brilliant innings from Sanju Samson. He said Jasprit Bumrah's tight over, where he conceded only six runs, proved to be the turning point as it halted England's momentum, while India's fielding also played a key role in the victory.

"They won a great match and scored a big score, and Sanju Samson played a brilliant innings. The way Bumrah bowled was amazing. His last over of six runs, I would say it was a game-changer because the England team was in very good momentum at that time. But by bowling brilliantly, they restricted it. They broke that momentum, and along with that, India fielded brilliantly," he said.

Put to bat first, a fiery knock from Sanju Samson (89* in 42 balls, with eight fours and seven sixes) and cameos from Shivam Dube (43 in 25 balls, with a four and four sixes), Ishan Kishan (39 in 18 balls, with four boundaries), Hardik Pandya (27 in 12 balls, with three fours and two sixes) and Tilak Varma (21 in seven balls, with three sixes) took India to 253/7 in 20 overs.

Despite having England down at 95/4, India could not dominate them as Jacob Bethell (105 in 48 balls, with eight fours and seven sixes) and Will Jacks (35 in 20 balls, with four boundaries and two sixes) put a counter-attacking 77-run stand for the fifth wicket.

Bethell continued to march on, and a fiery four-ball cameo of 19 from Jofra Archer took England really close, but not to the finishing line, with England ending at 246/7.

For India, Jasprit Bumrah (1/33 in 4 overs), Axar Patel (1/35 in 3 overs) amd Hardik Pandya (2/38 in 4 overs) were the standout performers with the ball.

The final is set to take place in Ahmedabad, where India will look to continue their impressive run and secure another major ICC title by defeating New Zealand at the Narendra Modi Stadium on March 8.

- ANI