India defeated England by 7 runs in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Semi-Final 2 at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The Men in Blue will face New Zealand in the final on Sunday, March 8, 2026, at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
India were asked to bat first after Harry Brook won the toss and elected to bowl. Another Sanju Samson masterclass allowed India to go above the 250-mark. The Men in Blue team remained unchanged in the crucial clash. Abhishek Sharma’s run of low scores in the T20 World Cup continued as he was dismissed by another off-spinner, Will Jacques.
Sanju Samson is once again taking a big step
Samson played a explosive inning of 89 runs in 42 balls and was also the player of the match. Contributions from Ishan Kishan (39 off 18), Shivam Dubey (43 off 25), and finally, Hardik Pandya (27 off 12) and Tilak Verma (21 off 7) helped India chase down the target of 253/7 in 20 overs.
Chasing the target, England lost the wicket of Phil Salt early, but Jacob Bethel was amazing as he scored 105 runs in 48 balls and was the lone warrior in the chase of 254 runs. When the southpaw was batting, the total could be achieved at one wicket. However, he was run out in the final over and the match was over for England.
Sanju Samson, after winning back-to-back Man of the Match awards, thanked Jasprit Bumrah for a brilliant spell on a wicket suitable for batsmen. He bowled 33/1 from his four overs and was the most economical bowler in both innings.
“Feeling great, I knew I’d got some form from the last game. I thought I needed to make the most of my form, gave myself extra time. We knew no scores could be prevented, wanted as many as possible. England came close, played really well. Good semi-final. You need to assess the conditions, we’ve played a lot of cricket here, know it’s easy to chase.”
“But the way I and Ishan batted, we knew 250 should be possible. Very happy. All credit goes to Bumrah for being a once-in-a-generation guy. Think he deserves this award. Incredible feeling to play here, we wanted to give a positive result. Cents don’t matter, it’s not a Test or ODI game where you can go up and down. Happy with whatever I’m getting and striving to win.”
Sanju Samson is showing his experience
Sanju Samson has been exceptional since his inclusion in the team. He has played two match-winning innings for India on two crucial nights. Although he was dismissed by English captain Harry Brook on the score of 15 runs, this was the only chance he gave in his entire innings before being dismissed.
Sanju Samson has hit the most sixes for India in the three innings played so far. The wicketkeeper batsman has hit 15 sixes in the competition so far. Sanju scored 97* in the virtual semi-final against West Indies last Sunday while chasing the target of 196. In just four innings, he has scored 232 runs at an average of 77.33.
Also read: IND vs ENG semi-final sees MS Dhoni-Rohit Sharma reunion at Wankhede
