Jos Buttler blazes England into semis; Chris Jordan’s hat-trick bundle out USA for 115

Bridgetown: Skipper Jos Buttler led the way with a 38-ball 83 not out after Chris Jordan's four-wicket burst, including a hat-trick as defending champions England stormed into the T20 World Cup semi-finals with a 10-wicket rout of USA in Bridgetown, Barbados, on Sunday.

Buttler smashed six fours and seven sixes, five of them coming against left-arm spinner Harmeet Singh in the ninth over, as England shot out the paltry 116-run target in 9.4 overs.

Earlier, comeback pacer Jordan grabbed a hat-trick in an incisive spell of 4/10 as England skittled out tournament co-hosts USA for a paltry 115.

Making a comeback in place of Mark Wood, Jordan took all his four wickets in five balls in the penultimate over, including three in a row en route to his 4/10 in 2.5 overs as USA lasted for 18.5 overs. Adil Rashid, earlier, returned with a miserly 2/13, while Sam Curran (2/23) also picked two wickets.

The 35-year-old Jordan, who was born in Christ Church, Barbados, began the eventful over dismissing a well-set Corey Anderson for 29 with a low full toss.

After surviving the next ball, Ali Khan found his off-stump knocked over as Jordan went on to dismiss Nosthush Kenjige and Saurabh Netravalkar off successive deliveries to pick the first hattrick for England in T20Is. Jordan had figures of 4/10 from his 2.5 overs.

It was Sam Curran (2/13) who triggered the collapse dimissing Harmeet Singh (21; 17b) in the final delivery of the previous over as USA suffered a stunning collapse, lsoing five wickets in six balls without any addition to the total.

Invited to bat first, the USA had a torrid start of the innings with Reece Topley making an inroad in the first over by removing dangerous Andries Gous (8).

Steven Taylor and Nitish Kumar tried to make the most of the powerplay with a 34-run stand for the second wicket before Sam Curran gave the second breakthrough to the USA in the sixth over. Taylor departed after scoring 12 off 13 balls. USA were 48/2 after the end of the powerplay.

US skipper Aaron Jones joined Nitish in the middle but the duo failed to put up a big partnership as Adil Rashid clean bowled the former for 10 runs in the ninth over.

Nitish too fell prey to Adil Rashid in the 11th over and departed after scoring 30 runs. Cory Anderson's stay in the middle gave some respite to the side as he stitched two crucial partnerships of 21 and 27 with Milind Kumar (4) and Harmeet Singh (21) respectively in the middle overs.

However, Liam Livingstone broke the partnership with a scalp of Milind in the 14th over. With the wicket of Harmeet in the 17th over, Curran broke the sixth-wicket partnership to dismantle USA's batting.

Brief score: USA 115 all out in 18.5 overs (Nitish Kumar 30, Corey Anderson 29; Chris Jordan 4-10, Adil Rashid 2-13) lost to England 117/0 in 9.4 overs (Jos Buttler 83no, Philip Salt 25no). Agencies

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