CHENNAI: Almost an hour after the scheduled start at Guyana, England won the toss and opted to field against India in the semifinal of the T20 World Cup.
With intermittent rain and wet outfield delaying the toss and match, the flip of the coin eventually happened 80 minutes after the scheduled toss.
India and England are going in with the same team with both captains getting to do what they want. Jos Buttler wanted to bowl first while Rohit Sharma wanted to bat and both went back as happy men from the toss.
Playing XIs: India: Rohit, Virat, Pant, Dube, SKY, Jadeja, Axar, Dube, Bumrah, Arshdeep, Kuldeep
England: Salt, Buttler (capt & wk), Bairstow, Ali, Brook, Livingstone, Curran, Jordan, Archer, Rashid, Topley
While there is no reserve day for the second semifinal, the ICC have allocated four and a half hours of extended time to accommodate at least a shorter version of the game. Earlier in the day, South Africa beat Afghanistan to enter their first ICC men’s World Cup final.
The winner from the India-England game will play South Africa in Barbados on Saturday.
The last time the two teams went up against each other was in the 2022 T20 WC semifinal and India lost to England by ten wickets. England went on to beat Pakistan and win the title. India is still searching for the first-ever ICC title since 2013 when they won the Champions Trophy in England.
Rain threat for final
The weather for Barbados on Saturday is also not looking good for the summit clash. South Africa will be the first team to reach there while the winner of the India-England match will join them.