In a heart-shattering moment for the Men in Blue, Jos Buttler and Alex Hales sealed the fate of the grand finale at the MCG.

Jos Buttler won the toss and opted to bowl first. The Indian opening pair did manage to find the ropes, but KL Rahul fell early as Chris Woakes produced a belter to get rid of the LSG skipper.

Despite Virat’s commanding knock, Rohit Sharma never seemed comfortable and in his 28-ball-stay in the crease could only gather 27 runs, jeopardizing India’s early battery. An incoming Surykumar Yadav failed on one of the grandest occasions as he could only smash 14 from the 10 balls he faced.

It was once again a Virat and Hardik partnership that kept Team India motoring but somehow the jitters never seemed to come off. With so much friction in between, it was Virat Kohli who was left frustrated at the other end and by the time he wanted the chains off himself, Chris Jordan had already dealt a deafening blow. Thanks to Hardik Pandya’s 33-ball-63, India managed to pile up a warring score of 168.

The Indian bowlers somehow lost the plot early in the contest and couldn’t conjure any response whatsoever to the might of the English openers. No matter the bowling changes and various strategies used, it simply wasn’t to be, as all repeated efforts of knocking on the English door went down the drain with the Buttler-led army comfortably surging through to the finals scheduled to be played in Melbourne on Sunday.