Mumbai : India lost in the World T20 semi-finals, not to the West Indies but to no-balls.
The two seemingly innocuous no-balls by Ravichandran Ashwin and Hardik Pandya deprived India of a chance to get Lendl Simmons out who made the most of his charmed lives.
Playing for the first time in the tournament in place of injured Andre Fletcher, he made full use of the blunders to smash his way to a scintillating unbeaten 82 off 51 balls. The innings contained 5 sixes and 7 fours; he was helped in the effort by Johnson Charles, who also struck a spitfire half century and helped Windies to post 196/3 in 19.4 overs.
At the end of the day, India were left ruing why they let off Simmons due to overstepping, first by Ravichandran Ashwin when the batsman was on 18 in the seventh over, and then by Hardik Pandya when he was on 58 in the 15th over with West Indies cruising at 132 for 3.
Result: West Indies defeated India by seven wickets and entered the final of the World Twenty20 cricket tournament.
Batting first after losing the toss, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane had got India off to a brisk start. Virat Kohli went for the kill by smashing a magnificent 89* off 47 balls and helped India reach a competitive total of 192/2.
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It has been a great day for West Indies cricket. Both the men and women have qualified for the finals of the World Twenty20 final. The men will take on England in the final while the women take on Australia.
This was the third time in four clashes in the tournament’s history that Windies had got the better of India who had won their earlier clash two years ago in Bangladesh on way to finishing runner-up to Sri Lanka.
