The Free Press Journal

England need to big win

When they take on USA to stay alive in semifinal race

Defending champions England will need their power hitters to do the job against a demoralise­d yet tricky USA in their final Super 8 match as they eye a huge win to keep themselves in contention for a semifinal spot at the T20 World Cup here on Sunday.

England batters couldn't produce the big hits while chasing a target of 164 during their last Super 8 match against South Africa, suffering a narrow sevenrun loss on Friday.

West Indies' massive ninewicket win over the USA has opened up the group, leaving England with the task of notching up a big victory to push their net run-rate up as it might come down to it in the end.

While South Africa are currently sitting atop the Group 2 with two wins, both West Indies and England have a win and a loss each with the former having a better

NRR than the latter.

However, no team is assured of a semifinal berth and England will need to defeat

USA by either 10 runs or at least an over to spare to stay in contention for the semifinals.

For SA, a loss – even in a Super Over – against WI in their final match will knock them out of the race if England can achieve their task. If SA win and England lose to USA, it will again be a three-way tie between WI, ENG and USA for the second spot and the team with better run-rate will go through to the knockout stage. England batters produced an authoritat­ive performanc­e against the West Indies but they failed to tame the SA bowlers and faltered in their chase of 164 on Friday. Phil Salt has been in great form, having blasted two centuries, a fifty, and three thirties in his last 10 T20Is but his early dismissal meant England couldn't get the explosive start as Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow couldn't quite bring out the big shots.

Harry Brook (53) and Liam Livingston­e (33) played sensibly to take the chase deep but England eventually failed to score 25 runs in the last three overs.

England's batting remains a formidable force which the likes of Netravalka­r and Harmeet Singh will find tough to tame.