India edge England in run fest: Samson’s 89 trumps Bethell’s 105 in high-scoring thriller

On a day when India hit 19 sixes and 18 fours to post 253 and England responded with 15 hits over the fence and 21 to the ropes and fell short of the target by 7 runs. T20 cricket is a game of the smallest margins, especially when the pitch is true, the boundaries short and batsmen fearless.

India claimed the right to play New Zealand for the 2026 T20 World Cup title on a Wankhede night where every conceivable cricketing shot was played and some new ones unfurled. The batting was of the kind that would look unrealistic on a PlayStation. Bowlers of the highest class were reduced to perplexed bystanders as their best deliveries were carted away.

This was not cricket as anyone recognised it. Barring Sanju Samson, the Player of the Match, who stuck to his oldschool method in a 42-ball 89 that set the game up. Samson was well supported by Ishan Kishan (39), who ensured the pace did not flag at the fall of wickets, and Shivam Dube (43) who was promoted to take down spin ace Adil Rashid and delivered beyond expectations.

England responded in kind, Jacob Bethell, one of the many bright young talents forged in the furnace of T20 cricket batting out of his skin for a 48-ball 105 before being found short by a throw from Hardik Pandya that was to the far end. It was only then, in the first ball of the final over, that India would have felt they had the game in the bag, and they had a bit of fielding brilliance to thank for it.

The thunderstorm of fours and sixes ensured that the tempo kept rising. Just when you thought you had seen the shot of the day, another followed, raising the bar. The hitting went from crescendo to crescendo and when television producers sit down to cut a highlights reel, they will have almost nothing to leave out.

But, if the deluge ensured that no one shot stood out, the game produced a moment that will stand the test of time, just as one of the alltime classic moments in Indian cricket history. In 1983, television coverage at cricket matches was slightly different from what it is today. At the World Cup in England, there were cameras in place, but their primary job, from fixed positions, was tracking the action up and down the 22-yard cut strip that is the pitch.
The bowler was tracked faithfully from the top of his run to the time he delivered the ball, and a camera locked on the batsman focussed on the response. So far, so good, but when the ball went up in the air, or the stroke was defeated and an edge caused it to spear in an unexpected direction, there was a scramble to lock onto the moving visual.Fortunately, when Viv Richards miscued Madan Lal, the cameraperson on duty got it just right. Kapil Dev ran back from mid-on, head turned over his right shoulder, eyes locked on the ball up in swirling winds, feet gliding across the turf efficiently but unhurriedly, sinewy athleticism at its best. Kapil’s genius was that he n e v e r looked like he was going to drop a catch that no other Indian fielder at the time would have even attempted seriously. The moment the ball was struck, Kapil knew where it would end up, and there he was, both hands wrapped around the ball, destiny’s child, taking the catch that won India the final. Anyone who has seen a video of that catch cannot forget it.

At the Wankhede Stadium, where every square inch of the action was captured in ultra-high-definition for posterity, an allrounder set himself apart a la Kapil. Jasprit Bumrah had fooled Harry Brook with a slower one but the batsman went through with the stroke and the ball speared up into the night sky. Axar Patel, the unlikeliest of sprinters set off, made good ground and flung himself through the air, body parallel to the turf as he held the catch and thudded to earth. Fans in the Sunil Gavaskar Pavilion, who had held their breath for what felt like an eternity, let out a collective sigh of relief that turned into a roar. Off the last ball of the 14th over, Will Jacks carved the ball out to the opposite side of the ground.

Sprinting along the ropes at full tilt with no concern for what lay ahead, Axar reached the ball and plucked it out of the air. As his momentum threatened to carry him over the boundary and into the Sachin Tendulkar Stand, he flicked the ball to Shivam Dube and it was catch completed, if not quite victory sealed.

A day before the match, India’s fielding coach was photographed with several Indian players at the Siddhivinayak Temple and it was fair to say India’s prayers had been answered, their one obstacle on the path to the final removed.

BRIEF SCORES: India 253/7 (Samson 89 off 42, Dube 43 off 25, Kishan 39 off 18; Jacks 2/40, Rashid 2/41) beat England 246/7 (Bethell 105 off 48, Jacks 35 off 20; Pandya 2/38) by 7 run