Painful Adelaide memories fuel England's Cup dream

The poignant significance of England achieving one their most emphatic World Cup cricket triumphs under lights at Adelaide Oval was not lost on the players most responsible for delivering it.

It was at the same venue, under very different circumstances almost eight years ago, that England's white-ball fortunes sunk to their nadir when the team captained by Eoin Morgan lost to Bangladesh and, in doing so, crashed out of the ICC's 2015 ODI World Cup.

Among members of that shellshocked outfit were Jos Buttler and Alex Hales, the batting brutes who last night put world cricket heavyweight India to the sword by surging to a 10-wicket win with four overs to spare in the T20 World Cup semi-final to reach Sunday's trophy decider against Pakistan.

Image Id: AFFAFD1D2C8B40DCA6CC09448CE304C0 Image Caption: Bangladesh famously toppled England in Adelaide in 2015 // Getty

That ignominious loss to Bangladesh not only cost then coach Peter Moores his job, it brought about a fundamental shift in the way England plays white-ball cricket, the manifestation of which was last night's clinical demolition of the nation recognised as the benchmark of the 20-over game.

Moores was eventually replaced by Australia's Trevor Bayliss who four years later led England to the fabled finale at Lord's that delivered their first 50-over World Cup, and now another Aussie – former national women's team coach Matthew Mott – has them eyeing another.

And if the enterprise England showed in Adelaide on Thursday night provides a guide, and Melbourne's notoriously fickle weather holds, there's every chance more global silverware is on the way.

"A few of the boys were talking about that," Buttler said after his unbeaten 80 in England's flawless chase of India's 6-168 when asked about the earlier Adelaide memories.

"It's a little bit different to seven years ago.

"I don't think we came into this tournament as anywhere near favourites, but we're a really dangerous team.

"At points, perhaps we haven't played as well as we could, but we found ourselves in a World Cup semi-final and now a final.

"We can enjoy the moment tonight, but don’t get too far ahead of ourselves.

"The biggest game of the tournament is still to come."

It seemed England's Adelaide hoodoo might persist when their fastest and most successful bowler of this World Cup, Mark Wood, was ruled out of the semi-final with a hip complaint while batter Dawid Malan was also forced to miss with a groin injury.

Buttler said post-game England would "wait and see" whether either of the injured duo would be fit to take their place in Sunday's final.

Then, when India allrounder Hardik Pandya super-charged his team's slow start with a brutal half-century in the latter overs which had the predominantly India-supporting crowd dancing in the aisles, questions were being asked as to whether Buttler had erred by opting to field first.

But the quietly spoken skipper claimed, true to the "take the game on" mantra England have adopted since that bleak evening of March 2015, he was confident they could chase down any score.

And as the record books will show, they could conceivably have done just that given India never looked like taking a wicket or stemming the runs flow.

"We thought runs on the board," India coach Rahul Dravid said post-game, after his captain Rohit Sharma indicated at the coin toss he would have batted first had it landed in his favour.

"We were a team that had been batting well.

"Maybe when the game started the boys were saying they thought the wicket was a little tacky, a little bit slow and we thought at that 15-over mark we were 15-20 runs short.

"In the end it looked like we were a lot shorter than 15-20, but we should have been able to get to 180."

Further emboldening England heading into Sunday's final is the knowledge they were able to overcome the fanatical and vocal support afforded India by a majority of the 40,000-strong crowd at Adelaide Oval.

Given the scenes at the SCG a night earlier, it's not unreasonable to expect another similar wave of support for Pakistan on Sunday at the MCG but Buttler believes the experience he and many of his teammates have gleaned playing in the Indian Premier League has steeled them for such scenarios.

"I think we have quite a lot of IPL experience so situations like that don't surprise you," Buttler said of the atmosphere at Adelaide.

"We've played in India a lot, so we know what to expect when certain guys walk on to the field or come into bat."

It was also the England players' familiarity with 20-over cricket at Australia venues through their regular involvement in the KFC BBL over recent years that held them in good stead yesterday when they played their first game for the tournament at Adelaide Oval.

Buttler noted that was particularly the case for Hales who he claimed "has probably played as much BBL cricket as anyone" and who now boasts 269 runs at the extraordinary average of almost 135 in his past four 20-over innings at the ground.

Pakistan fans may take solace his recent record at the MCG is not quite so imposing, his past four T20 knocks there yielding 'just' 140 runs at almost 47.

But while England's experiences in the India and Australia domestic T20 competitions have clearly held them in good stead for this tilt at another World Cup, the same can't be said of the involvement of India's players.

Despite the huge profile and purse of the IPL, India's men do not appear in the domestic leagues of international rivals such as the BBL which Dravid concedes might be a factor but one he can't seeing change any time soon.

"There's no doubt about that, the fact that a lot of their (England's) players have come here and played in this (BBL) tournament has certainly shown," he said after India's World Cup ended.

"But it's tough for Indian cricket because a lot of these tournaments happen during our season.

"It's up the BCCI (Board of Control for Cricket in India) to make that decision.

"But with the kind of demand there would be for Indian players to play in all these leagues, our cricket would be finished.

"Test cricket (in India) would be finished.

"We have seen what that's done to West Indies cricket, and I would not want to see Indian cricket go that way."