A tale of two catches decided England’s Twenty20 World Cup fate: one a dropped dolly, the other a worldie. Both involved Harry Brook.
Elimination to India at the semi-final stage for the second tournament in a row hinged on a howler by Brook that reprieved India’s man-of-the-moment Sanju Samson.
A player whose swashbuckling batting eliminated West Indies in Sunday’s shoot-out cashed in again after being missed when on 15 by Brook at mid-on. He eventually fell for 89 from just 42 balls.
‘Catches win matches don’t they, and it just didn’t stay in the hands,’ said Brook.
‘I kept on looking at the scoreboard as he was piling the runs on, thinking: I’ve got to get 89 now.’
Jacob Bethell scored more than that with an astounding innings, striking England’s third fastest hundred off just 45 balls, yet there was an inescapable feeling throughout the heroic pursuit that if a national record T20 chase of 230 here versus South Africa 10 years ago was to be supplanted it required something special from Brook.
England were knocked out of the T20 World Cup by a rampant India on home soil in Mumbai
Harry Brook was both the saviour of his side and the architect of their demise in a tale of two catches in the match
However, he succumbed for single figures to a moment of superb agility from Jasprit Bumrah’s first delivery of the match. Brook met the slower ball with a checked drive, towering the ball over cover, only for Axar Patel to hurtle towards the boundary rope and complete an overhead catch at full stretch 20 yards in.
At 38 for two, it brought in Bethell, whose striking during a second hundred of the winter – his first against Australia in the Ashes also coming in a losing cause – was scintillating.
Despite losing three wickets inside the power play – Phil Salt and Jos Buttler completing underwhelming tournaments either side of Brook – England bettered India’s six-over tally by one run, and then brought up the 100 in 8.1 overs, two balls quicker than their opponents.
Bethell took it upon himself to inject some impetus into the innings, bulldozing three sixes off Varun Chakravarthy’s first three deliveries on his way to a 19-ball half century and then encouraging Tom Banton (17 off five) and Jacks (35 off 20) to play at similar tempos to keep a required run rate that had started at 12.7 below 14.
India had struck 19 sixes in their 253 for six, and England looked on course to match that during the punchy counter-attacking stand of 77 from 39 between Bethell and Jacks.
But Axar then produced another moment of magic, sprinting round the boundary at deep point and relaying the ball to Shivam Dube to complete the dismissal before he stepped over it.
Silence greeted every delivery that ended up in the stands, but Axar’s second stunning piece of fielding returned the Wankhede to its ear-splitting loudest.
Even though England outsripped India’s scoring at various staging posts, the problem they had was called Jasprit Bumrah, a player whose career economy rate stood at 6.53 before tonight.
Invited back into the attack for the final time for the 18th over, India’s trump card conceded just six, leaving the equation at 39 off the final 12 deliveries.
With only 10 coming off the next from Hardik Pandya, the game was almost up and it truly was so when Bethell was run out going for two to keep the strike from the first ball of the last sent down by medium pacer Shivan Dube.
India were already celebrating the prospect of meeting New Zealand in the final in Ahmedabad on Sunday before Jofra Archer put into context the quality of a run-drenched pitch with three sixes.
The opening exchanges of India’s seven-run win were gladiatorial, with a 33,000 sell-out crowd chanting the names of their champions – every boundary greeted with a deafening din.
Axar Patel dealt with Brook and shut down a promising partnership between Jacob Bethell and Will Jacks
England did not play a perfect game but showed the courage necessary to compete in the tie
Will Jacks temporarily silenced things by luring Abhishek Sharma – a man who blasted an extraordinary 54-ball 135 when the two countries met on this ground 13 months ago – into a false shot to deep midwicket.
But the chance to completely change the atmosphere was missed moments later when Samson, on 15, lobbed a catch to mid-on off Jofra Archer that Brook fumbled at shoulder height, relinquishing the opportunity to reduce India to 24 for two.
Two deliveries later Samson was watching the ball sail into the second tier of the Sachin Tendulkar Stand, and India simply never looked back, subjecting England to their biggest ever total conceded.
Samson’s 50 from 26 balls included seven fours and two sixes and although Adil Rashid halted a second-wicket stand with Ishan Kishan when it was worth 97, India’s response showed how adaptable they are in this form of the game.
Rashid’s early figures of 2-0-13-1, including Kishan’s departure to a catch down the ground, were mightily impressive given the carnage around him, but India simply promoted Dube, a specialist spanker of spin, to No 4 in a bid to wreck them.
Dube obliged with two huge swats into the crowd at long-on and another over long-off when Rashid returned to bowl out.
None of England’s attack were spared: Liam Dawson was removed with figures of 1-0-19-0, one of Sam Curran’s overs cost 20 and Archer topped it all, returning the worst analysis of his 45-match career: 4-0-61-1.
He also went the journey in England’s record 150-run defeat here 13 months ago. This one stopped much closer to the finish line, but with Brook’s team ruing missed opportunities.