England are one win away from their first T20 World Cup title since 2010 and have become the double limited-overs world champions after chasing 170 with 24 balls to spare against India in Adelaide.
Jos Buttler Buttler (80 off 49 balls) and man-of-the-match Alex Hales (86 not out off 47 balls) stitched the highest partnership in T20 World Cup history to give England a chance to recover from their loss to the West Indies in the 2016 T20 World Cup final.
“It will be a great opportunity,” Jos Buttler said. You don’t come this way very often, so it’s definitely something to taste. “It’s important that we enjoy the performance (against India) but not go too far beyond ourselves. The biggest match of this tournament is yet to come.
“I’m immensely proud of the guys, that was a brilliant performance, by far our best performance of the tournament. We have some fantastic players in our team and when they play their best, it’s a tough team to beat them. We are an incredibly dangerous side and there is a lot of confidence in the team.
“We didn’t play as well as we could in the tournament but still found ourselves in the semi-finals of the World Cup. The way we played in such a high-pressure game is extremely satisfying. Hales replaced Bairstow in the England squad and has impressed in the last three innings, scoring 52 against New Zealand and 47 against Sri Lanka.
“It was amazing, what a performance, as clinical as it can be,” Bairstow said of England’s win on Sky Sports News. You need people to stand in the semi-finals and that’s what happened. Asked if there was any statement from England’s win, Bairstow said, “Absolutely. They were fearless all the way through the run chase.
“The character that the players have shown to bounce back after losing to Ireland and now reaching the World Cup final is amazing but they will be well aware that the job is not done yet. It’s an equal ground when it comes to a World Cup final, I don’t think there are favourites. If Pakistan players stand up, it’s going to be an exciting game, but if we can take early wickets and come into the middle order, we should be fine. ‘