England crush India in T20 World Cup as Alex Hales blitz sends them to final

Openers set up comprehensive victory and set up final against Pakistan

England batsmen Jos Buttler (R) and Alex Hales celebrate beating India in the T20 World Cup semi-final at the Adelaide Oval on November 10, 2022. EPA

England's Alex Hales plays a shot during during his brilliant unbeaten 86 at the Adelaide Oval. AFP

England's Jos Buttler celebrates reaching his 50. Getty

England's Jos Buttler plays a shot on his way to an unbeaten 80. AFP

England's Alex Hales celebrates reaching a half century. PA

England captain Jos Buttler takes evasive action to avoid Axar Patel of India. Getty

England captain Jos Buttler. AFP

England opener Alex Hales plays a shot. AFP

India's Hardik Pandya plays a shot on his way to 63 off 33 balls.

England fielder Ben Stokes fails to stop a boundary from India's Hardik Pandya. AP

India's Hardik Pandya looks down after stepping on his wicket. PA

England's Chris Jordan took 3-43 off his four overs. PA

India batter Virat Kohli celebrates after reaching his half century. PA

England's Adil Rashid, centre, celebrates taking the wicket of India dangerman Suryakumar Yadav for 14. AFP

Virat Kohli scored 50 off 40 balls for India. Getty

England's Sam Curran catches out Indian batter Rohit Sharma. EPA

Captain Rohit Sharma scored 27 off 28 balls for India. Getty

England bowler Chris Woakes, centre, is congratulated by teammates after talking the wicket of India opener KL Rahul for five. AP

Three years ago, Alex Hales missed out on a World Cup winner’s medal with England when he was suspended from duty for the 2019 tournament on home soil.

He has been absent for much of the time since. Now he appears intent on righting that wrong, after guiding England into Sunday’s T20 World Cup final against Pakistan in Melbourne.

The opener made 86 not out for England in what was a demolition against India.

In concert with Jos Buttler, he helped secure a 10-wicket win to leave the majority-Indian crowd at Adelaide shell-shocked. They still had four overs to spare by the time Buttler smashed the winning runs.

This tournament has been a tough one for opening batters, but England’s top two had hinted in the previous two games that they were getting the measure of the task.

Just as Mohammed Rizwan and Babar Azam had done the previous day in the first semi-final for Pakistan, England’s openers broke the back of the chase.

Their century alliance came up on the first ball after the mid-innings drinks break. Hales had the dominant share, with 63 of those 101 runs, having taken just 28 balls to get to his half century.

It is rare for Buttler to seem sedate in comparison to any batting partner, but he was happy to sit in, and he was hardly dawdling himself.

With the outcome assured, he stepped on the accelerator. He got to 50 in 36 balls. Shortly after, he laced a 100 metre six straight back over Mohammed Shami’s head.

It felt like England were showboating by that point, but India were not exactly helping themselves. Off the very next ball, Suryakumar Yadav and Virat Kohli made a confused attempt at catching Buttler in the deep. It ended with Yadav punching the ball a good distance to the rope for four.

Earlier, Kohli had made another half-century, but was overshadowed for India by Hardik Pandya.

The all-rounder top scored with 63, which included hitting the last 12 balls he faced for 39. Although that assault helped India to post 168 for six, it never threatened to be enough.