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Indian spinner Axar Patel opened up on his strategy behind a three-wicket haul against England in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup 2024. The 30-year-old spinner revealed that he bowled slower deliveries in the clash and that helped him to get the regular breakthrough. Axar helped India with its first breakthrough with Jos Buttler's wicket on his first delivery at Providence Stadium in Guyana.
With this win, Team India have qualified for the final where they will face South Africa which is scheduled to be played at Kensington Oval in Barbados on June 29 scheduled to start at 8 PM IST.
“I have bowled in the powerplay in the past, so I had to bowl in the powerplay, that was the plan. The wicket was stopping and keeping low, so tried to bowl in the right areas. The wicket was slow, so I tried to bowl slower in this match, it worked for me. Wouldn't have worked had I bowled quicker, would have been easier for their batters. Our batters told us that the wicket wasn't easy, so 160 was a good total according to us. That partnership (between Rohit and SKY) was magnificent, they scored the occasional boundaries and rotated the strike. Not thinking about Barbados at the moment, will celebrate this player of the match award first” said Axar in Post match conference.
The Indian team thus exacted revenge for the crushing 10-wicket loss it endured against the defending champions in the 2022 semifinal of the mega-event at the Adelaide Oval.
In the process, Rohit became the first Indian captain to lead the country in three ICC global finals in a space of 12 months -- 2023 World Test Championship, 2023 ODI World Cup and now the T20 World Cup.
Considering India's all-round bowling attack and nature of the surface, Rohit's men were expected to defend the total and they did that rather comfortably. His decision to use Axar in the powerplay proved to be a masterstroke as the left-arm spinner struck twice in quick succession, from which England could not recover.
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