An overnight wrap from India with all the T20 World Cup action
England have beaten Scotland by five wickets in the Twenty20 World Cup to move up to second in their group behind the West Indies, thanks to Tom Banton’s unbeaten half-century at Eden Gardens.
Chasing 153 for victory, Banton’s 63 off 41 deliveries guided England over the line on Saturday after Scotland made early inroads into their top-order.
“It’s T20 cricket, it’s a high-risk game and you’ve got to keep backing yourself,” said Banton, who picked up the player-of-the-match award after falling early against Nepal and the West Indies.
“At times, it goes against you and it’s hard, you’ve got to keep coming back, keep trying hard, keep practising. Luckily, today was my day.”
England won the toss and elected to field, with pacer Jofra Archer picking up two wickets in his second over to dismiss George Munsey and Brandon McMullen, while Michael Jones fell in the powerplay for a quickfire 33.
Richie Berrington and Tom Bruce (24) steadied the ship with a 71-run stand, a measured counter-offensive that targeted the spinners and increased the run rate to nine per over.
Both fell in quick succession, however, with Berrington out one run short of what would have been a hard-earned fifty when he was trapped lbw by Adil Rashid (3-36).
From a relatively comfortable 3-113, Scotland stumbled into disarray as the duo’s wickets triggered another collapse but Oliver Davidson offered a final flicker of resistance with an unbeaten 20 that took Scotland to 152 all out.
“I thought we fought back really well after losing those early wickets,” Berrington said.
England’s chase got off to a poor start when the explosive Phil Salt fell to the third ball of the innings and fellow opener Jos Buttler was dismissed in the second over.
Banton and Jacob Bethell (32) shared a 66-run stand but Scotland struck twice again when Bethell and captain Harry Brook (four) attempted to play sweep shots and were caught.
That brought Sam Curran to the crease and the allrounder who’s having a fine World Cup again eased the pressure with a knock of 28 before he fell skying a Brad Wheal delivery to wicketkeeper Matthew Cross.
But Will Jacks (16no) finished the chase in the penultimate over with the game’s biggest six and a four.
Proteas too strong for Black Caps
South Africa v New Zealand scorecard
South Africa are on the brink of reaching the Twenty20 World Cup’s Super 8 stage after captain Aiden Markram’s storming half-century led them to a dominant seven-wicket victory over New Zealand.
New Zealand suffered their first loss in the campaign in group D after they posted 7-157 on Saturday, as unbeaten South Africa’s Marco Jansen took four wickets.
In response, opener Markram hit four sixes and eight fours in his unbeaten knock of 86 off 44 balls, the highest by a South African captain in the tournament’s history, helping his team reach 3-178 with 17 balls to spare.
Last edition’s finalists South Africa chose to bowl first in Ahmedabad, and it immediately paid off as player-of-the-match Jansen (4-40) dismissed most of New Zealand’s top-order by the seventh over.
Finn Allen (31 off 17 balls) tried to mitigate the damage after Tim Seifert and Rachin Ravindra fell to Jansen.
But the paceman had Allen caught at mid-off in the sixth over, leaving New Zealand struggling at 3-58.
Mark Chapman (48) and Daryl Mitchell (32) turned things around with a 74-run partnership for the fifth wicket, until Jansen got Chapman caught by Ryan Rickelton at backward point in the 14th.
New Zealand scored only 17 runs in the next four overs, until Jimmy Neesham’s unbeaten 23 off 15 balls got them to a fighting total.
Chasing 176, South Africa got off to a fast start with Markram hitting three sixes and five boundaries to steer his team to 0-62 in just four overs.
Losing fellow opener Quinton de Kock (20) did not affect Markram, who hit Mitchell Santner for a six over long-on to reach his half-century in just 19 balls.
By the time Rickelton (21) fell in the eighth over, South Africa had already crossed the 100-run mark.
With the required run-rate falling below six, Markram didn’t hit a single boundary in the next seven overs, and focused on rotating the strike, getting South Africa within 28 runs of victory with 30 balls left.
David Miller, who scored an unbeaten 24, cleared the midwicket boundary to bring up the winning runs.
South Africa will conclude their group campaign against the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday, a day after New Zealand play Canada.
