T20 World Cup: 'England lost to a team who have had all bases covered', says Nasser Hussain

NEW DELHI: Former captain Nasser Hussain claimed that the Jos Buttler-led team fell against a team that "had all bases covered" in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup after England lost to India in the semifinal.
Jos Buttler's team defeated the USA to clinch a ticket in the next round with style, capping a difficult group stage performance. Nevertheless, they were unable to defeat India, who had been undefeated since the start of their campaign and was unstoppable in the competition.
"The narrative will be that everything on Thursday was geared towards India reaching the T20 World Cup final - the surface, the venue, all seemed to be in their favour.But if you look at things in greater detail, they came into this semi-final against England having just beaten 50-over world champions Australia on a bouncier, good pitch in St Lucia, and reverted to a lower, slower pitch and won comfortably," Hussain wrote in his column for Daily Mail, according to IANS.
"Fair play to them for the way they played and it feels right that India and South Africa, the two unbeaten sides in the tournament, go head to head in Barbados on Saturday," he added.
Captain Rohit Sharma's 32nd T20I fifty through a 39-ball 57 and Suryakumar Yadav's 47 off 36 balls helped India post 171/7. In response, England mustered only 103 all out as the Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav (3-19) and Axar Patel (3-23) combined to take six wickets between them to outclass the defending champions.
"A combination of seamers keeping the ball low and spinners turning it with no bounce made their 171 for seven a pretty decent score to defend, and Rohit Sharma showed his class by taking one of his favourite shots - the pull - out of the equation to make another half century," said Hussain in his column.
He went on to say that the only criticism that could be directed on the English captain was Buttler's choice to send India into the bat first.
"The one issue you could level at Buttler was his decision to insert India after winning the toss. Perhaps with rain around he was thinking about Duckworth Lewis, and it was a bit damp up front which might have given them a better chance of their opening bowlers Reece Topley and Jofra Archer nicking people off.
"But it should not distract from the fact England lost to a team who have had all bases covered in this competition," he concluded.
India now face South Africa in the final at Kensington Oval in Barbados on Saturday.