Rohit brought Axar on for the fourth over, with England 26 without loss. Buttler essayed an ambitious reverse sweep off the left-arm spinner’s first ball, only managed a toe end and was easily caught by Rishabh Pant. That triggered a sequence where Axar picked up a wicket with the first ball of his second and third overs as well. With Kuldeep Yadav spinning a wicked web around the middle order and Jasprit Bumrah doing Bumrah things, England imploded spectacularly, their title defence in ruins long before Bumrah trapped Jofra Archer in front.

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“I didn’t plan to get wickets off the first ball,” Axar, the Player of the Match for his 3-23, smiled. “When you play in the knockouts, your mindset is that you should start and finish the over well. 

Every time I got a wicket, that was a bonus. It feels very good when you perform and the team win. When you perform and the team doesn’t do well, the performance doesn’t matter. I feel good that we are one step closer to the trophy.”

We were outplayed: Buttler

Several eyebrows were raised when Buttler opted to chase on a sluggish, two-paced surface of low bounce where batting would get progressively tougher. “Whatever happened at the toss, I don’t think it influenced the outcome of the match,” he insisted. “They were going to be a tough team to beat. We had to be at our best if we were going to win the game, and we were short of our best today. We were outplayed by India, they fully deserved the victory. I was hoping to restrict them to 145-150, but it was always going to be a tough chase [once they got to 171].”