By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
India on Thursday night entered the Final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup after beating England by narrow 7 runs in a high-scoring semifinal thriller at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
India will now play New Zealand in the March 8 Final at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
England won the toss and put India into bat first. Opener Abhishek Sharma continued his poor form. After losing the early wicket of Sharma when the score was 20 runs, Opener Sanju Samson and Ishan Kishan played brilliantly hitting fours and sixes to take the score to 117. After the dismissal of Kishan for 39 runs, Shivam Dube and Samson added 43 runs to take the score to 160. After Dube, Samson continued to play some excellent shots before he was out on 89 runs. This was the second consecutive time that Samson couldn’t complete century. Samson had narrowly missed a century against Zimbabwe.
However, Hardik Pandya and Tilak Varma made some quick-fire runs to propel India to a hefty 253 runs in 20 overs.
England too made bad start losing Phill Salt cheaply. Captain Harry Brook also couldn’t show his mettle. But Jacob Bethell launched a blitzkrieg hitting eight fours and seven sixes to make the third fastest century for England in T-20 World Cup in 43 balls. Soon, Sam Curran joined Bethell as both players continued to smash sixes and fours.
After Curran departed, Bethell too was run out for 105 runs. However, when Jofra Archer came to hit sixes in the last over, it was too late for England to chase the imposing target of 254 runs. England finally lost the semifinal match by just 7 runs.