WorldT20: Can the final top the excitement of this week’s semis?

OUTSIDE EDGE: Diary of a cricket obsessive

West Indies's captain Darren Sammy, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle celebrate victory in the World T20 semi-final (Getty)

Kohli’s brilliance not enough as Windies leave India winded

What a game! If anyone was still under the illusion that T20 matches don’t have the capacity for twists and turns in the way that tests do, yesterday’s WorldT20 semi-final will surely have changed their mind once and for all.

Seven balls into West Indies’ reply to India’s 192, the game seemed briefly to have fallen flat. With the cricket world expecting, Chris Gayle was simply unable to deliver – instead playing all round a low full-toss from that scourge of even the coolest of Thundercats, Jasprit Bumrah. Yet in the event, his failure was – astonishingly – immaterial to the result.

Earlier, India’s man of the moment, Virat Kohli, had been calmness personified – at least after an early attempt to run himself out and an edgy boundary two balls later. From then on, he was magnificent. To score only a single six in a score of 89 emphasised Kholi’s terrific running and his ability to score freely without the need to clear the boundary. His eleven fours were all timing and placement – hardly the bish, bash, bosh we’ve come to anticipate in these games but no less exhilarating.

Subsequently it seemed as if Kohli’s magic touch as a bowler might ultimately deal the West Indies a killer blow when he took a wicket with his first ball to put the game back in the balance. After that intervention, however, the West Indians simply carried on their merry way. Sixes flew with abandon; India, criminally, took wickets off no-balls; and West Indies’ lesser lights shone bright – which speaks perhaps to the impressive spirit within their dressing-room.

With the hosts out England have a chance to avenge their first round defeat. If only Sunday’s final can live up to our anticipation.

Joe enables England’s other branches to take Root

England’s win against New Zealand was thrillingly brilliant too - and ultimately comprehensive. From a position of real strength at the halfway point in their innings, New Zealand were held back by their opponents in a way that was almost visceral. In every facet of the game, England’s talent seemed instinctive and impossible for the New Zealanders to overcome.

Much has been said about the supreme bowling at the death by Stokes and Jordan, and about Jason Roy’s explosive opening to England’s innings. Jos Buttler’s hitting at the end was magnificent too.

But it is Joe Root who epitomises the new relationship which England seem to have developed with the T20 format. Coming in at number three, Root – who don’t forget has played fewer than fifty T20 games in his professional career – seems capable of playing at any required tempo depending on the match situation. For a man once cast as a long-form specialist it is a remarkable achievement, which underlines both work ethic and natural ability. Yesterday he kept the strike ticking over while Roy remained at the crease, then settled English nerves after Eoin Morgan’s ignominious duck, before launching the final fling towards victory with a wonderful reverse sweep for four from the first ball of the seventeenth over.

England are a team of many impressive parts, but it is Root who is the central cog around which others whir.

I’m saving my applause for non-clappers

Two things have caused me irrational irritation in the last couple of days. First is the way in which some of England’s cricketers (including the captain) clap one another on the field of play. To be very precise, it’s the manner in which they clap vertically, bring one hand down on the other from above is if patting a dog’s head. In any other walk of life, applause happens on the horizontal plane, or at worst 45 degrees. The vertical clap is a sporting affectation – it shouldn’t annoy me, but it does and by saying so I aim to rid myself of the freakish anger I feel.

The second irritant is lame nicknames. England’s tendency is simply to add a ‘y’ to short names to make, for instance, ‘Rooty’. Difficult, multi-syllable names are shortened, as in the case of ‘Morgs’. This lack of imagination is thoroughly depressing and at odds with England’s T20 strokeplay. That said, having been lumbered with ‘Al’ for a period in the mid-nineties I know only too well that ‘imaginative’ nicknames can be just as annoying.