Hello everyone and welcome to the biggest game of this World Cup so far. It’s the holders against the favourites. It’s Jos Buttler against Jasprit Bumrah. It’s Rohit Sharma against Jofra Archer. It’s the flashing blade against the turning ball. And it’s cricket against the weather.
The first semi-final was an absolute shower and the second threatens to be just one downpour after another. We are not in North America now, we’re not in the Caribbean either – we’re on the north coast of South America, close to the rainforest, in the rainy season.
The clue is in the name: Guyana is an indigenous word meaning the land of many waters. I went there once to cover a Test match and not a single ball was bowled, though, to be fair, the clouds did clear in time to allow an impromptu ODI.
England haven’t been to Guyana since the last World Cup in these parts, 14 years ago. None of their players has appeared in an international at Providence Stadium, not even Buttler with his vast experience. The pitch tends to offer meagre bounce as well as lavish turn. England have just the one specialist spinner, the red-hot Adil Rashid, plus two handy part-timers in Moeen Ali and Liam Livingstone, whereas India routinely pick three proper twirlers – Kuldeep Yadav for the wristy mysteries, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja for some solid slow left-arm. In this light, it’s even easier than usual to picture an England collapse.
India hold a few other aces. The weather gods are on their side: if the match is abandoned, they go through (because they topped their group in the Super Eights). And it will be abandoned if we don’t get ten overs a side, rather than the normal five. There is no reserve day, just an extra four hours. It’s as if the ICC have gone out of their way to add to their collection of scheduling abominations.
These are advantages, though, that India don’t need. They have the tools, the talent and the temperament to win any game fair and square. You can tell that this is quite a team when the weakest link is a man called Kohli. They should have a powerful motive too, as the last time they met England in a T20 World Cup semi-final, they lost by ten wickets.
England have staggered through to this stage largely by virtue of demolishing the smaller teams (not that that is to be sniffed at – their football counterparts could really do with it). Their only big performance against big opponents came when they dismantled West Indies. Can they do it against the biggest nation of all? I rather doubt it, but you never know.
Play starts, with a bit of luck, at 3.30pm (BST). I’ll be back soon with the toss and teams, or some exciting news about the weather.