Before India’s dominating performance in the T20 World Cup final on Thursday ended England’s title defence with a 68-run thrashing, English pundits and former players had questioned the “advantages” the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had received from the International Cricket Council (ICC). This secured India’s place in the final against South Africa.

As India batted in the rain-affected game, they amassed a commanding 171–7, with captain Rohit Sharma (57) and captain Suryakumar Yadav (47) accounting for the majority of the runs on the sluggish Providence Stadium in Guyana.

The 2007 winners then made a comeback, dismissing England for 103 in 17 overs thanks to the devastating turning ball exploits of spin pair Axar Patel and Kuldeep Yadav.

David Lloyd and Michael Vaughan, two former cricket players who are now experts, have questioned why India would play all of their matches in the morning and get a predetermined semi-final site.

The story will be that everything on Thursday looked to be set up to help India go to the T20 World Cup final; the surface and the location, for example, seemed to be in their favor. If you examine the situation more closely, however, you will see that they entered this semi-final match against England having recently defeated 50-over world champions Australia in St. Lucia on an excellent surface. They then switched to a slower, lower pitch and won handily. In his Daily Mail column, Hussain said, “It feels right that India and South Africa, the two undefeated teams in the tournament, go up against each other in Barbados on Saturday.

“The conditions here in Guyana were completely different from those in the 2022 semi-final match that India lost to England at the Adelaide Oval, despite the fact that their score was only marginally higher than 168.” Their 171 for seven was a reasonably reasonable number to defend thanks to seamers keeping the ball low and spinners twisting it without bouncing. Rohit Sharma showed class by removing one of his favorite strokes, the pull, from the equation to get another half-century, Hussain said.