Sanjeev Kumar
khelja|17-02-2026
England Beat Italy PtiImage Credit source: PTI
Two-time champions England once again narrowly escaped being the victim of a major upset in the T20 World Cup 2026. England, who had avoided defeat on the very last ball against Nepal in their very first match of the tournament, were this time beaten by Italy. However, once again due to Sam Curran's amazing performance in the last overs, England managed to save its honor and won the match by 24 runs. With this, Harry Brook's team made it to the Super-8 round with its third win.
In this match played at Eden Gardens Stadium, Kolkata England Once again the same defeat was seen which had happened against Nepal a few days ago.
When England decided to bat first, it seemed that a big score would be made and the Italian bowlers would be thrashed badly. But this did not happen. At least England could not dominate completely.Jacques' explosive half-century
Phil Salt (28) gave the team a fast start and scored some boundaries as soon as he arrived, but on the other side, Jos Buttler (3)'s bad phase continued. But as soon as Salt was out, England's wickets started falling one by one and half the team collapsed till captain Harry Brook was limited to just 105 runs.
This was the time when Sam Curran and Will Jacques took over the innings. Both of them took the team beyond 150 runs. Even after Curan was out, Jaques (53 not out) continued to shine and took the team to 202 runs by scoring a half-century in just 21 balls. Grant Stewart and Krishna Kalugamage took 2-2 wickets for Italy.Click here for more information related to T20 World Cup 2026
Manenti rained sixes
After this, Joffra Archer showed that this target would be impossible for Italy by taking 2 wickets of Italy in the very first over.
Soon the team lost 3 wickets in 4 overs. But England would hardly have thought that once again it would have to struggle against the inexperienced batsmen of the new team. Like Nepal's batsmen, for Italy too, Justin Mosca and Ben Manenti made an explosive partnership of 92 runs, destroying the England bowlers. In this, Manenti also scored the fastest half-century for Italy in just 22 balls. Ultimately Will Jacques broke this partnership by dismissing Manenti (60 runs, 25 balls, 6 sixes, 4 fours).Sam Curran saved England's shame
After some time, Moska (43) also became the victim of Adil Rashid. Here Italy's innings faltered and the reason for this was Sam Curran, who took 2 consecutive wickets in the 16th over. But the story was not over. New batsman Grant Stewart (45 runs, 23 balls, 5 sixes) hit sixes. He hit 2 sixes in the over of Joffra Archer and then hit 3 sixes on Adil Rashid in the 18th over. This gave England a sigh of relief. Only 30 runs were needed in the last 2 overs but once again Curran (3/22) turned the game. In this over, Curran gave only 5 runs and took the wicket of Stewart.
Italy was all out for 178 runs on the last ball of the innings.
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