Fast bowler Chris Jordan got a hat-trick on Sunday as the US lost five wickets in six balls and England secured their spot in the semi-finals of the Men’s T20 World Cup.
Defending champions England crushed the US by 10 wickets with 62 balls remaining in their final Super Eight game.
South Africa sealed a place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2014 when they beat cohosts the West Indies by three wickets in a thrilling rain-affected match in North Sound, Antigua.
Photo: AP
Both cohosts, the West Indies and the US, have been eliminated.
Jordan, who replaced paceman Mark Wood, grabbed four wickets off five balls in his final over to dismantle the US for 115 runs in 18.5 overs and become the first Englishman to claim a hat-trick in T20 internationals. He finished with 4-10 in 2.5 overs on the Caribbean island of Barbados where he was born.
“Very nice to do this at a special place like this,” Jordan said.
England captain Jos Buttler then smashed 83 not out off 38 balls, including five sixes in one over against left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh, as England raced to 117-0 in 9.4 overs.
“I thought if we could bring our intensity, we’d be too good,” Buttler said.
England started their innings knowing that they needed to surpass South Africa’s net run-rate by chasing the target in 18.4 overs, but finished the chase in less than 10 overs.
“We’ve got great options. We wanted to bring Chris Jordan back, adds a bit of depth with his batting capabilities as well,” Buttler said.
England squeezed the US in the middle overs through impeccable leg-spin from man-of-the-match Adil Rashid (2-13 in four overs), as Liam Livingstone (1-24) also bowled well after Buttler won the toss and elected to field.
Rashid, who did not concede a boundary, bowled two perfect googlies that baffled captain Aaron Jones (10) and top-scorer Nitish Kumar (30).
The sensational collapse began at the end of the 18th over when Jordan caught Harmeet Singh at long-off — off Sam Curran’s full toss — and then bowled a pulsating 19th over.
Corey Anderson (29) holed out a pacey full toss from Jordan at the start of the over. Jordan’s third ball sent Ali Khan’s off-stump cartwheeling. Jordan then had Nosthush Kenjige pinned leg before wicket off a sharp incoming delivery and got his hat-trick by uprooting Saurabh Netravalkar’s middle stump to end the match.
Jordan is the second bowler at the World Cup after Pat Cummins to record a hat-trick. The Australian fast bowler took back-to-back hat-tricks against Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
Buttler smashed seven sixes and six fours. Phil Salt (25 not out) happily gave the strike to his skipper.
The US’ fairy-tale World Cup debut, which included a historic victory against heavyweights Pakistan earlier in the tournament, ended with three straight Super Eight losses.
Earlier, Roston Chase made 52 from 42 balls and shared a 81-run third-wicket partnership with Kyle Mayers which provided the heart of the West Indies innings.
Mayers, who was making his first appearance at the tournament as a replacement for the injured Brandon King, opened the innings and made 35 from 34 balls.
The West Indies suffered a massive setback when they lost big-hitters Shai Hope and Nicholas Pooran in the first two overs.
Pooran made 98 from 53 balls in the West Indies’ last group match against Afghanistan and Hope made 82 from 39 balls in their nine-wicket win over the US on Friday last week, but Hope was out for a first-ball duck to the third ball of the match and Pooran fell for 1 to the first ball of the second over.
Chase hit the first ball he faced for four and hit the first six of the innings off Keshav Maharaj in the fifth over. He also lived on his luck to a degree: he was dropped on 11 and 14 on his way to a half-century from 39 balls.
Tabraiz Shamsi took 3-27 and captain Aiden Markram bowled his four overs consecutively at the top of the order and took 1-28.
South Africa also lost two wickets early: Reeza Hendricks and Quinton de Kock were out in the second over of their innings before the rain. They seemed to have put themselves in a winning position with the help of Tristan Stubbs’ 29 from 27 balls, but it finally came down to Jansen.
“Credit has to be given to the boys, I think we fought to the end,” West Indies captain Rovan Powell said. “I think it was a commendable bowling effort. After making 135 we just decided to give it our all and whatever happens, happens.”
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