Calcutta/Mumbai: England pulled off an astonishing 230-run record chase with Joe Root (83) leading an incredible batting performance that powered them to a two-wicket victory against South Africa in the World Twenty20, in Mumbai, on Friday. Required to score at almost 12 runs an over, England turned the chase on its head with Jason Roy and Alex Hales (17) putting on a blistering 48-run partnership for the opening wicket in just 2.3 overs.
But it was Test specialist Root, the No. 2 ranked player in the world in the longest form of the game, who threw caution to the wind during his whirlwind 44-ball knock studded with four sixes and six fours. "It's just nice to contribute to a win. At half-time, the talk was not to get greedy and try for 20 an over. We wanted to be sensible and take it really deep. Guys were so calm under pressure. We wanted to just back our natural instinct and tried to build a partnership.
"But we couldn't have asked for a better start. That made our job easier as we were ahead of the game from the start. It was about staying cool, getting boundaries and rotating the strike," said Root at the post-match presentation.
"Bowlers are always under pressure in this format of the game. The longer you can carry on in a partnership, the more pressure you put on them. It was a fabulous wicket. To get 460 runs on it, its just fabulous. The guys would want to carry it with them," Root added.
England succeeded in pulling off the second-best run-chase in T20Is and best in World T20 history, by making 230 for 8 in 19.4 overs, thus keeping their hopes alive in the mega-event.
The highest-ever second innings T20 total (236) was put up by the West Indies, also against South Africa in January, 2015, when they chased down the home team's 231 for 7 at Johannesburg. Root came to the crease after openers Roy blitzed his way to 43 in just 16 balls with the help of three sixes and five fours to give England a superb blast-off in the Super 10 Group 1 game at the Wankhede Stadium.
England captain Eoin Morgan said after the match: "Honestly, I felt we would have to play out of our skin to chase it down. We did just that. There's a lot of talent in our group. We played with freedom tonight and that is the best way to play. That's the message to the squad.
"It's been brilliant - the past 12 months, where we have had some big chases. But to get a start like that from Roy and Hales was outstanding. Will take a lot of confidence from tonight. We did a lot of things right... The game nowadays is asking a lot of questions from the bowlers as the batsmen are finding new ways to score. Sometimes, the simple plans are the best.
"We played with a positive mindset in the West Indies game too, and thought if we could get (Chris) Gayle out, we might open up their middle order. But he scored most of their runs and is such an influential player."
South Africa captain Faf du Plessis said England were brilliant. "We've played this game long enough to know that no score is unreachable... and that was the message to the bowlers that we needed to start with intensity.
"England played brilliantly and very aggressively in the first six overs and that took the game away from us. But there were a lot of extras from our side. Batting was superb. As you saw, the first six overs was the best time to bat. Makes execution of your plans tough on this kind of ground. We gave around 25 or 28 extras and that's just too much."
